Payday Loan Demographics Study – December 2010
A common myth is that payday loan consumers are mostly poor, uneducated and African American. This stereotype is often used by politicians when trying to justify “feel good” payday loan laws that end up hurting consumers.
In this Payday Loan Demographics Study, we examine the gender, age, ethnicity, household income and education of 2,228,799 unique visitors to the 18 payday loan sites listed on our Compare Lenders page.
It is intended as a follow up to our Demographic Study of Online Payday Loan Consumers posted in 2008 but it looks at a data pool ten times the size of our previous sample.
Data Sources
To maintain an objective study, our website visitor data are sourced from unbiased, third-party web statistics providers Compete.com and Quantcast. They estimate traffic and demographics based on data from ISPs, panels and other sources.
Scope of Study
We looked at the traffic data of 18 payday loan sites collected in November, 2010. In total, these sites received an estimated 2,228,799 unique visitors and 3,634,889 visits during October. The average site had 123,822 unique visitors and 201,938 visits per month which works out to approximately 1.4 visits/person.
These 18 sites are all actual lenders (real lenders who issue, fund and service loans originating on their websites). We do not include “matching services” or affiliate/publisher sites.
Links
All lender links go to the lender review page on our site, not the lender’s site. Our review page gives additional information such as price per $100, BBB Rating and service criteria.
Gender
| Statistic | Male | Female |
|---|---|---|
|
Mean (Average)
|
36%
|
64%
|
|
Median (Middle)
|
37%
|
63%
|
|
Mode (Most Frequent)
|
37%
|
63%
|
|
Minimum (Lowest)
|
28%
|
54%
|
|
Maximum (Highest)
|
46%
|
72%
|
As we found in our previous study, most payday loan consumers are women. On average, women outnumber men by almost two to one. The site with the lowest percent female was DelawareFastCash with 54% female. The site with the highest number of women was CashOne at 72% female.
Age
| Statistic | Age 18-34 | Age 35-49 | Age 50+ |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Mean (Average)
|
31%
|
31%
|
18%
|
|
Median (Middle)
|
32%
|
32%
|
18%
|
|
Mode (Most Frequent)
|
27%
|
26%
|
21%
|
|
Minimum (Lowest)
|
19%
|
24%
|
11%
|
|
Maximum (Highest)
|
47%
|
37%
|
26%
|
Most visitors are young or middle-aged but, on average, almost one in five payday loan consumers are 50 years of age or older. The sites that had the most senior visitors were CheckCity and FastCash-Advance at an estimated 26% of visitors aged 50 plus.
Ethnicity
| Statistic | Caucasian | African Am. | Asian | Hispanic |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mean (Average)
|
57%
|
30%
|
03%
|
08%
|
|
Median (Middle)
|
58%
|
30%
|
02%
|
08%
|
|
Mode (Most Frequent)
|
52%
|
23%
|
02%
|
07%
|
|
Minimum (Lowest)
|
45%
|
21%
|
01%
|
04%
|
|
Maximum (Highest)
|
67%
|
42%
|
05%
|
17%
|
Most online payday loan consumers are Caucasian. On average, Caucasians outnumber African Americans by almost two to one. Of the remaining ten percent, 8% are Hispanic and only 2% are Asian. The site with the most Caucasian visitors was NationalPayday at 67% Caucasian. The site with the most African Americans was FastCash-Advance at 45% Caucasian and 42% African American.
Children
| Statistic | No Kids | Has Kids |
|---|---|---|
|
Mean (Average)
|
48%
|
52%
|
|
Median (Middle)
|
47%
|
53%
|
|
Mode (Most Frequent)
|
46%
|
54%
|
|
Minimum (Lowest)
|
38%
|
32%
|
|
Maximum (Highest)
|
68%
|
62%
|
A little over half of all payday loan consumers have children 17 years of age or younger in their household. Taking into consideration the gender statistics above (women outnumber men by two to one), we wonder how many payday loan consumers are single moms?
Household Income
| Statistic | Under $30k | $30k-$60k | $60k-$100k | $100k Plus |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Mean (Average)
|
26%
|
35%
|
22%
|
16%
|
|
Median (Middle)
|
24%
|
36%
|
22%
|
15%
|
|
Mode (Most Frequent)
|
24%
|
34%
|
21%
|
15%
|
|
Minimum (Lowest)
|
17%
|
23%
|
18%
|
07%
|
|
Maximum (Highest)
|
42%
|
50%
|
30%
|
30%
|
Most payday loan consumers have an annual household income of $30,000 to $60,000. About 22% earn over $60,000 and about 15% over $100,000. Only about 1 in 4 earn less that $30,000. Payday loans are not just for the poor.
Education
| Statistic | No College | College | Grad School |
|---|---|---|---|
|
Mean (Average)
|
49%
|
41%
|
10%
|
|
Median (Middle)
|
49%
|
41%
|
09%
|
|
Mode (Most Frequent)
|
54%
|
37%
|
09%
|
|
Minimum (Lowest)
|
39%
|
34%
|
07%
|
|
Maximum (Highest)
|
56%
|
51%
|
17%
|
On average, over half of payday loan consumers are college educated and 10% are grad school educated. The lenders with the most college educated visitors were CheckCity and CashOne at 50% and 51%, respectively.
Demagogues say payday lenders take advantage of the uneducated; our data say many educated people take advantage of payday loans.
Conclusion
A common stereotype is that payday loan consumers are poor, uneducated and mostly African American. Our data suggest otherwise:
Most online payday loan consumers are gainfully employed with a middle-class income or better. Over half of them went to college and about 10% went as far as grad school. Most are Caucasian. Women outnumber men by two to one. Over half have kids in the household under 17 years of age. About one in five payday loan consumers are over 50 years old.
Afterword
This study is not definitive. It was never intended to be. We simply wanted more data, less demagoguery.
To gain a better understanding of the industry and the borrowers it serves, we’ll need to create a more exhaustive and rigorous study. In the near future we’ll be adding more lenders to increase the size of the sample again.
We’d also like to compare these demographic data with the internet average to gain a better understanding. For example, a single site may get twice as many Caucasian than Africans but if there are four or five times more Caucasians than African Americans on the internet, it puts these data into a whole new light.
If you have any suggestions for improvement or would like to help in any way, please contact us.
Our mission is to help borrowers make informed decisions based on facts, not fictional stereotypes.