Doubling Borrowers, Quadrupling Liabilities: Inside India’s Debt Shift

TL;DR Between 2018 and 2025, the number of unique borrowers in India more than doubled, rising from 12.8 crore to 28.3 crore. Concurrently, the average debt per borrower increased from Rs. 3.41 lakh to Rs. 4.77 lakh. Household financial liabilities also saw a massive surge in the post-pandemic years, peaking at Rs. 18.8 lakh crore in 2023-24.

Context
India is witnessing a major shift in how its citizens manage money, moving from a tradition of saving to a growing culture of borrowing. Recent government reports reveal that more people are entering the credit market than ever before, taking on larger loans to fund their lives. This evolving financial behaviour is driven by easier access to credit and changing economic needs in a post-pandemic world. In this article, we will examine the latest official figures to understand the depth of this transition and what it signals for the financial health of Indian households.

Who compiles this data?
The Ministry of Finance is responsible for presenting these figures to Parliament, but the actual data compilation is done by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). The RBI tracks borrower statistics through credit bureaus like Transunion CIBIL, while the National Statistical Office (NSO) works with the RBI to determine household financial liabilities.

Where can I download clean & structured data related to household assets and liabilities in India?
Clean, structured, and ready-to-use dataset on Year-wise Changes in Financial Assets and Liabilities of the Household Sector is available for download on Dataful. The site also features datasets on external debt, flow of financial assets and liabilities of households, and more.

Key Insights

Since 2018, the number of borrowers with outstanding debt has doubled, adding 15.5 crore individuals – a population larger than that of Russia or Japan. This surge implies that over 60,000 new active borrowers have entered India’s formal credit system every single day for the last seven years.
During this period, the average debt per borrower rose from Rs 3.41 lakh in 2018 to Rs 4.77 lakh in 2025. That is, not only has the pool of borrowers grown, but the burden on each individual has increased as well.

Household financial liabilities in absolute terms have seen a significant upward trend, more than quadrupling from ₹3.8 lakh crore in 2014-15 to ₹18.8 lakh crore in 2023-24.
During this period, the liability-to-GDP ratio remained relatively stable between 3% and 4% for several years. However, starting in 2022-23, the share spiked to nearly 6% indicating that household debt is growing faster than the overall economy.
Although there is a slight moderation projected for 2024-25, the burden continues to be high compared to the start of the decade.

Why does it matter?

This trend highlights a fundamental shift in the Indian economy, moving from traditional saving habits to a culture driven by credit. The significance lies not just in the growing number of borrowers, but in the deepening burden on families. According to the RBI’s Financial Stability Report, consumption-based loans like personal loans made up the majority of household debt, significantly overtaking housing loans and agriculture and business loans. Since household debt is rising faster than the overall economy, there is a risk of families stretching their budgets too thin, leaving them with less of a safety net.

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