Number of Credit Cards and Credit Card Holders

The number of credit cards from the four primary credit card networks (i.e. VISA, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover) is 608.3 million.
(Sources: Visa.com, MasterCard.com, AmericanExpress.com, Discover.com, Nilson Report, February, 2010)

According to data from the U.S. Census Bureau there were:

• 1.43 billion credit cards in 2000
• 1.49 billion credit cards in 2008
• That number is projected to be 1.28 billion credit cards by 2011.

This data includes the number of store credit cards, which almost equals the number of credit cards from all four primary credit card networks combined.

Number of credit cards (in millions):

Type of Credit Card	2000	2003	2007	2008	2011 Projected
Visa	255	283	321	304	282
Mastercard	200	267	279	260	211
Store	597	521	546	539	463
Oil Company	98	86	73	65	61
Discover	50	54	57	58	56
American Express	33	36	52	54	54
Other	192	185	166	160	150
Total	1,425	1,433	1,493	1,493	1,278

Also according to data from the U.S. Census Bureau, there were:

• 159 million credit cardholders in the United States in 2000
• 176 million in 2008
• That number is projected to grow to 183 million U.S. cardholders by 2011

Number of cardholders (in millions):

Type of Credit Card	2000	2003	2007	2008	2011 Projected
Visa	93	94	107	108	104
Mastercard	86	96	105	100	83
Store	114	115	114	114	99
Oil Company	76	68	58	62	56
Discover	36	40	42	42	42
American Express	23	27	35	36	46
Other	133	130	120	6	6
Total	159	164	176	176	183

(Source: Census Bureau)

According to Experian, there are 3.45 open credit accounts per individual with credit history. If there are between 220 and 230 million adults in the U.S, this data indicates that there are between 759 million and 793.5 million credit cards nationwide.
(Source: Experian National Score Index, June 2011)

In regards to households:

• 78 percent of U.S. households, representing 91.1 million, had one or more credit cards at the end of 2008. At the end of 2007, there were 90.4 million households with cards.
  (Source: Nilson Report, April 2009)

• Approximately 74.9 percent of the U.S. families surveyed in 2004 had credit cards, and 58 percent of those families carried a balance. In 2001, 76.2 percent of families had credit cards, and 55 percent of those families carried a balance.
  (Source: Federal Reserve)