How Indebted Are Mexicans? A Data-Driven Look at Consumer Debt
Interactive visualizations exploring the state of consumer debt in Mexico — credit cards, mortgages, delinquency rates, and per-capita debt using official Banxico and CNBV data.
Mexico’s consumer debt has been growing steadily for over a decade. As someone working in credit refinancing at Digitt, I wanted to dig into the actual numbers — how much do Mexicans owe, what kind of debt are they taking on, and how well are they paying it back?
All the data in this post comes from Banxico (Mexico’s central bank) and CNBV (the banking regulator). The charts are interactive — hover over them for details.
Consumer Credit Over Time#
The total consumer credit portfolio has nearly tripled since 2015. The blue area represents performing loans (cartera vigente), while the red shows delinquent debt (cartera vencida). Notice the dip during COVID-19.
Where Does the Debt Come From?#
Credit cards remain the largest source of consumer debt, followed by payroll loans and auto financing. Each category carries a different risk profile.
Delinquency Rates by Credit Type#
Not all debt is equal when it comes to repayment. Credit cards consistently show the highest delinquency rates (IMOR), while auto loans tend to perform best — likely because the car itself serves as collateral.
Debt Per Person#
When you break it down per capita, the numbers become more tangible. The orange bars show debt per economically active person (PEA) — a more realistic measure since not everyone in the population holds debt.
Credit Cards#
Mexico has seen a boom in credit card issuance. But more cards don’t necessarily mean more responsible usage — watch the utilization rate (orange line) to see how close people are to maxing out their available credit.
Mortgage Market#
Housing credit tells a different story. Mortgage portfolios are large but tend to be healthier, with lower delinquency rates than consumer debt. The IMOR line (yellow) shows this stability.
This is an ongoing project. The data and visualizations are open source on GitHub — feel free to explore, fork, or extend the analysis.
If you’re dealing with high-interest consumer debt in Mexico, check out what we’re building at Digitt to help people refinance smarter.