I was looking for information on credit scores and found a page on Cardhub that has the average credit score by state. Cardhub indicated that the source was Experian but I followed the link and I don't see the state averages on Experian currently but they might have removed them.
The Experian site does have a full list of average credit scores by major cities for 2012 and 2011 numbers which are also interesting if you wanna look at individual cities.
Note the numbers are Experians credit score called Vantage Score and not the FICO number. The Experian numbers range from 500 to 990 so the cap is much higher than the FICO. Oh and before Nevada residents take offense I'm just joking with that article title.
In any case here are the average numbers per state for 2011:
Average Credit Score By State:
| State | Average Credit Score |
| Alabama | 680 |
| Alaska | 691 |
| Arizona | 680 |
| Arkansas | 683 |
| California | 690 |
| Colorado | 695 |
| Connecticut | 711 |
| Delaware | 694 |
| Florida | 683 |
| Georgia | 677 |
| Hawaii | 707 |
| Idaho | 705 |
| Illinois | 699 |
| Indiana | 695 |
| Iowa | 714 |
| Kansas | 702 |
| Kentucky | 688 |
| Louisiana | 674 |
| Maine | 708 |
| Maryland | 695 |
| Massachusetts | 713 |
| Michigan | 695 |
| Minnesota | 721 |
| Mississippi | 672 |
| Missouri | 694 |
| Montana | 714 |
| Nebraska | 712 |
| Nevada | 668 |
| New Hampshire | 714 |
| New Jersey | 705 |
| New Mexico | 677 |
| New York | 699 |
| North Carolina | 682 |
| North Dakota | 719 |
| Ohio | 696 |
| Oklahoma | 685 |
| Oregon | 704 |
| Pennsylvania | 705 |
| Rhode Island | 704 |
| South Carolina | 674 |
| South Dakota | 719 |
| Tennessee | 687 |
| Texas | 670 |
| Utah | 699 |
| Vermont | 716 |
| Virginia | 699 |
| Washington | 707 |
| Washington, D.C. | 682 |
| West Virginia | 686 |
| Wisconsin | 713 |
| Wyoming | 703 |
| US National | 692 |
The variation there is pretty wide really. The lowest average is in Nevada at 668 while the highest is Minnesota at 721. Thats about +/- 30 points from the national average or roughly 5% give or take. A 50 point swing between the best and worst is actually a pretty wide jump really.
I don't know why we'd see such large differences in scores but I bet that demographics has a lot to do with it. For example younger people have lower scores on average so a state that has more young people will have a lower state wide average. A high rate of delinquencies, foreclosures and short sales from the housing bust could also really hurt places like Nevada.
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