It is estimated that at least 120 million copies of McGuffey's Readers were sold between 1836 and 1960, placing its sales in a category with the Bible and Webster's Dictionary. Since 1961, they have continued to sell at a rate of some 30,000 copies a year.
Our researchers found the median debt per American household to be $2,300, while the average debt stands at $5,700. Combined data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve allowed us to dive deeper into credit card debt in the United States, and look beyond the face value of those two figures.
Still, in 2012, the average credit card debt among low- and middle-income households carrying credit card debt totaled $7,145, down from $9,887 in 2008. In a March 2012 survey, Demos looked at the differences between low- and middle-income families who had credit card debt, and those who didn't.