Where a Car Loan Is Possible: Formal Borrowing and Credit Costs in 2026
Introduction
On August 6, 2026, Ford unveiled the Fathom, an electric pickup truck starting at $28,000. Even at that deliberately low entry price, very few buyers pay cash — a vehicle of that class is one of the largest purchases a household makes, and for most of the world’s adults it is a credit product. That raises a question the announcement cannot answer: in how many economies can an ordinary adult actually borrow the money?
The World Bank’s Global Findex survey asks exactly that. Across 142 economies, the share of adults who borrowed from a formal financial institution in the past year ranges from 81% in Canada (2021) to just 1.4% in Morocco (2024). Where formal credit is that scarce, a $28,000 vehicle is not an affordability problem — it is an availability problem.
For context on how credit access interacts with banking infrastructure, see our earlier analysis of how the world borrows and the explainer on what drives bank borrower penetration.
What the indicator measures
Formal borrowing is the Global Findex share of adults (15+) who report borrowing any money from a bank, credit union, microfinance institution, or another formal financial institution in the past 12 months. It includes personal loans, mortgages, agricultural loans and business loans — anything from a formal lender. It is the broadest available measure of whether an ordinary adult can access credit at all. The related but narrower bank borrower penetration (borrowers per 1,000 adults) is covered in who borrows from banks.
Where formal credit reaches the most adults
| Rank | Economy | Adults who borrowed formally | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Canada | 81.0% | 2021 |
| 2 | Israel | 79.5% | 2021 |
| 3 | Iceland | 73.4% | 2021 |
| 4 | Hong Kong | 70.0% | 2021 |
| 5 | South Korea | 68.6% | 2021 |
| 6 | Norway | 66.8% | 2021 |
| 7 | United States | 66.2% | 2021 |
| 8 | Switzerland | 61.4% | 2021 |
| 9 | Japan | 61.2% | 2021 |
| 10 | New Zealand | 60.4% | 2021 |
Source: World Bank Global Findex. Latest Findex wave; survey years vary by economy (2021 shown, 2024 for some).
Where formal credit is rare
| Rank | Economy | Adults who borrowed formally | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| 133 | Ethiopia | 2.6% | 2024 |
| 134 | Niger | 2.5% | 2024 |
| 135 | South Sudan | 2.5% | 2021 |
| 136 | Afghanistan | 2.0% | 2021 |
| 137 | Yemen | 1.8% | 2022 |
| 138 | Morocco | 1.4% | 2024 |
Source: World Bank Global Findex (142 economies ranked).
The pattern is not purely income-driven. Brazil (45.9%, 2021) and China (40.7%, 2021) sit far above the global median despite middling incomes, while Morocco (1.4%) and Yemen (1.8%) trail even much poorer economies — a reminder that credit access is shaped by banking depth, documentation requirements, and collateral systems, not just GDP. For the deep-dive on credit depth, see where credit runs deepest.
What a loan costs where it exists
Access is half the story; price is the other. The World Bank’s lending interest rate — what banks charge on short- and medium-term private-sector loans — varies more than twentyfold across the 112 economies with data, from 3.0% in Israel (2022) and Switzerland (3.0%, 2024) to 68.9% in Zimbabwe (2024).
| Economy | Lending rate | Year |
|---|---|---|
| Israel | 3.0% | 2022 |
| Switzerland | 3.0% | 2024 |
| United States | 3.3% | 2021 |
| South Korea | 4.7% | 2024 |
| Thailand | 4.5% | 2024 |
| India | 8.6% | 2024 |
| Mexico | 11.2% | 2024 |
| Brazil | 40.2% | 2024 |
| Argentina | 61.7% | 2024 |
| Zimbabwe | 68.9% | 2024 |
Source: World Bank WDI, FR.INR.LEND. Rates are nominal; high rates track inflation and currency crises. See where borrowing costs most for the full ranking.
Put the two dimensions together and the vehicle-finance map emerges. In Canada, Israel, South Korea and the Nordics, most adults have formal credit access and can borrow near single digits. In Brazil, credit reaches a meaningful share of adults (45.9%) but at 40.2% — a loan that is available but punishing. In Morocco, Yemen and Afghanistan, the loan is barely available at all. A $28,000 vehicle is a mass-market product only in the first group; everywhere else it is a different product entirely.
Context: how deep is the credit system?
One more layer: domestic credit to the private sector as a share of GDP measures how much credit the whole financial system extends relative to the economy. Hong Kong leads at 231% of GDP (2024), with the United States at 201.2% and Japan at 194.6%. At the bottom, Afghanistan sits at 3.1% (2020) — a financial system that extends almost no credit at all. Deep credit systems and high formal-borrowing shares go together: both are the plumbing that turns a $28,000 sticker price into something a household can actually finance. For the full treatment, see what private sector credit means.
What 2026 looks like
None of these indicators carries a 2026 projection in our datasets — Findex is a survey with multi-year waves and lending rates are reported per-country at their own cadence. What 2026 does show is the affordability frontier moving on the product side (cheaper EVs, longer loan terms in rich markets) while the access side — whether an adult can borrow at all — remains the binding constraint in most of the world. For how digital rails are changing the picture, see how people finance big purchases and our report on where mobile money moves fastest.
Sources & method
Formal borrowing is World Bank Global Findex (142 economies; survey years 2021–2024 by economy). Lending rates are World Bank WDI FR.INR.LEND (112 economies; nominal rates, observed years as shown). Private-sector credit is World Bank WDI FS.AST.PRVT.GD.ZS (160 economies). Every figure is rendered verbatim from FinStatGlobe’s derived datasets with its actual data year; none are projections. Method: methodology. Figures may be revised by the source agencies.