Average Scores?

[Boldilocks]

I read recently that the average (median) score for Americans is in the 720s - is this really true?  How can it be so high, especially now when people are worse off (and I presume are having more lates and defaults).  It's kind of discouraging.  And then why do mortgages start at 580/620 if the "normal" score is over 700?

[JoeBJay20]

Average and median are not the same thing.  Median refers to the middle number of a set.  For example, if the set of numbers was 1,2,3,4,20, the median would be 3, but the average would be 6.  The number you're referring to is the median FICO score, which has always been reported to be around 720, meaning 50% of people score below that number, and 50% score above it.  No average FICO score has ever been reported, but it's estimated to be somewhat lower than the median. 

[RobertEG]

Simple answer is yes.

[smallfry]

Average score is probably closer to 680 than 720.