Hanover-born Gen X, Millennials lead in local credit scores
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If you're a young Gen Xer or elder Millennial who grew up in Hanover County, chances are you have a higher credit score than your peers who grew up in other parts of metro Richmond, newly released data shows.
Why it matters: Credit scores can determine people's access to loans, housing, better interest rates and more — despite their flaws and biases.
Driving the news: The credit score data comes from The Opportunity Atlas, — a joint project from the U.S. Census Bureau and Opportunity Insights at Harvard University — and is based on anonymized info from a major credit bureau.
- The map shows average credit scores in 2020 by childhood county for people born 1978-1985, making them roughly 35-42 at the time of measurement.
- The result: A snapshot of people's credit scores based on where they grew up, not necessarily where they lived when the snapshot was taken.
By the numbers: The cohort of people born in that window in Hanover had the highest average credit scores in the region — 701— as of 2020.
- Chesterfield elder millennials's average score: 690.
- Henrico: 680.
- Richmond: 632.
- The national average: 681
Zoom out: People who grew up in parts of the Upper Midwest and the Northeast tend to have relatively high credit scores in early middle-age, newly released data shows, while those from the South tend to have lower scores.