The "most credit hungry" consumers are those aged between 21 and 29 as they made up the biggest group of credit applicants last year .

The Credit Bureau Singapore's latest report shows these 20-somethings made up 18.5 per cent of about 858,500 people applying for credit cards or loans.

They also had the greatest difficulty in repaying loans, according to data for the last quarter of 2016. When it came to personal loans, 7.2 per cent of those aged 21 to 29 were delinquent - a measure of failure to pay their monthly instalments within 30 days.

The same group also had difficulties with even repaying their personal loans, with default rates for the quarter rising 27.73 per cent to 0.89 per cent, compared with the third quarter last year.

A default happens when a payment is reported to have been written off by the lending institution.

Their average delinquency rate for personal loans last year was 7.3 per cent, much higher than the next group, those aged between 30 and 34, which had a 4.7 per cent rate.

The average default rate for those aged between 21 and 29 was 0.99 per cent last year, also the highest of all the age groups.

However, when it came to credit cards, those aged between 40 and 44 were the most delinquent, while those who were 21 to 29 years old were the least delinquent.

People aged between 35 and 39 had the highest average default rate for credit cards, at 0.18 per cent, while those 21 to 29 came in second last at 0.11 per cent.

For the others applying for credit, those aged 30 to 34 made up 17.5 per cent, while 16.4 per cent were between 35 and 39; people aged 40 to 44 made up 14.3 per cent.