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.
Breaking Down Ownership of US Debt. By mid-2015, the total amount of official debt owed by the federal, state and local governments was more than $18.5 trillion. That figure is expected to reach $21.6 trillion by the start of 2016.