Countries in the OECD with households in worse shape than the US:
Spain, Belgium, France, New Zealand, Portugal, Finland, Britain, Ireland, Canada, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark.
Scandinavian countries for example have household debt to income ratios that are among the worst. Australian and Canadian households are also in worse shape than the US, despite being generally quite affluent (Australia's household debt to disposable income ratio is 2x worse than the US).
The US is comparable to Japan, and just slightly above Germany on household leverage.
More broadly, wealthy nations tend to have households with more leverage than poorer nations. They tend to have highly functional financial systems that facilitate that, combined with consistent, dependable economies.
I suspect that the high household debt has to do with the fact that those countries all have a high number of home owners that have a loan out for their house.
In Belgium for example all houses bought/built are financed via a loan, which in turn is promoted by the government in the form of a tax deduction. Not getting a loan for a house (even when you have the money available) is simple a bad choice here.
That's simply not correct among developed nations. It's an old myth that refuses to die.
The US is in fact on the lower side for the OECD:
https://data.oecd.org/hha/household-debt.htm
Countries in the OECD with households in worse shape than the US:
Spain, Belgium, France, New Zealand, Portugal, Finland, Britain, Ireland, Canada, South Korea, Sweden, Switzerland, Australia, Norway, Netherlands, Denmark.
Scandinavian countries for example have household debt to income ratios that are among the worst. Australian and Canadian households are also in worse shape than the US, despite being generally quite affluent (Australia's household debt to disposable income ratio is 2x worse than the US).
The US is comparable to Japan, and just slightly above Germany on household leverage.
More broadly, wealthy nations tend to have households with more leverage than poorer nations. They tend to have highly functional financial systems that facilitate that, combined with consistent, dependable economies.