Updated: Jan. 15, 2020

It’s 2020, and Americans are more burdened by student loan debt than ever.

Among the Class of 2019, 69% of college students took out student loans, and they graduated with an average debt of $29,900, including both private and federal debt. Meanwhile, 14% of their parents took out an average of $37,200 in federal parent PLUS loans.

You’ve probably heard another scary statistic: Americans owe over $1.64 trillion in student loan debt, spread out among about 45 million borrowers. That’s about $587 billion more than the total U.S. credit card debt.

But how does this break down at a more granular level? Are student loans being used to attend public or private universities? Is it mostly from four-year or graduate degrees? What percentage of overall graduates carry debt? Are more grads utilizing private student loan consolidation and refinancing?

Let’s take a look.

(Data provided by Mark Kantrowitz, publisher and vice president of research with SavingforCollege.com, as well as by the U.S. Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, unless otherwise specified.)

General student loan debt facts

First, let’s start with a general picture of the student loan landscape. The most recent data indicate there is:

$1.64 trillion in total U.S. student loan debt

44.7 million Americans with student loan debt

11.1% of student loans are 90 days or more delinquent or are in default

Monthly student loan payment (among those not in deferment) usually range between $200 and $299 on average

(Data via the U.S. Federal Reserve here, and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York here.)

Public Service Loan Forgiveness statistics

(As of September 2019 – latest available data)

PSLF borrowers: 1,132,007*

Borrowers who submitted forgiveness applications: 90,962

Borrowers who were granted PSLF: 845

Average balance forgiven: $61,592

* Total number of borrowers who have one or more approved PSLF Employment Certification Forms (ECF)

(Note: Borrowers are self-identified based on submission of an ECF. Source: United States Government Accountability Office, via the Report to Congressional Requesters, and Dept. of Education here.)

Federal student loan portfolio

(Updated for September 2019)

Now let’s dive into how much debt student loan borrowers carry by loan type, term and more.

STUDENT LOAN DEBT STATISTICS BY LOAN PROGRAM:

Direct Loans $1.24 trillion 35.1 million borrowers FFEL Loans $261.6 billion 12.1 million borrowers Perkins Loans $6.1 billion 2.0 million borrowers Total (All Federal) $1.51 trillion 42.9 million borrowers

STUDENT LOAN DEBT STATISTICS BY LOAN TYPE:

Stafford Subsidized $280.7 billion 29.5 million borrowers Stafford Unsubsidized $516.0 billion 28.9 million borrowers Stafford combined $796.7 billion 33.2 million unique recipients Grad PLUS $75.2 billion 1.4 million borrowers Parent PLUS $96.1 billion 3.6 million borrowers Perkins $6.1 billion 2.0 million borrowers Consolidation $536.1 billion 11.7 million borrowers

(Data via Studentaid.ed.gov)

STUDENT DEBT STATISTICS BY LOAN STATUS (DIRECT LOAN PROGRAM)

Loans in repayment $719.2 billion 19.3 million borrowers Loans in deferment $132.4 billion 3.7 million borrowers Loans in forbearance $130.2 billion 2.9 million borrowers Loans in default $161.3 billion 7.6 million borrowers Loans in grace period $45.2 billion 1.8 million borrowers

(Data via Studentaid.ed.gov)

STUDENT LOAN STATISTICS BY REPAYMENT PLAN (DIRECT LOAN PROGRAM)

Level Repayment Plan

(10 years or less) $200.7 billion 10.76 million borrowers Level Repayment Plan

(greater than 10 years) $77.6 billion 1.70 million borrowers Graduated repayment plan

(10 years or less) $90.4 billion 3.12 million borrowers Graduated repayment plan

(greater than 10 years) $16.7 billion 340,000 borrowers Income-Contingent (ICR) $33.6 billion 710,000 borrowers Income-Based (IBR) $170.4 billion 2.77 million borrowers Pay As You Earn (PAYE) $96.7 billion 1.39 million borrowers Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) $168.9 billion 2.9 million borrowers Alternative $44.9 billion 1.29 million borrowers

(Data via Studentaid.ed.gov)

STUDENT LOAN DEBT BY SERVICER

REPAYMENT DEFERMENT FORBEARANCE IN-SCHOOL GRACE Outstanding

(billions) Recipients

(millions) Outstanding

(billions) Recipients

(millions) Outstanding

(billions) Recipients

(millions) Outstanding

(billions) Recipients

(millions) Outstanding

(billions) Recipients

(millions) PHEAA $251.5 5.22 $33.7 0.81 $47.6 0.85 $20.8 0.88 $9.0 0.27 Great Lakes $153.4 4.64 $31.2 0.9 $28.4 0.72 $29.3 1.5 $11.4 0.41 Nelnet $119.5 3.67 $25.1 0.72 $17.6 0.46 $22.4 1.08 $8.3 0.3 Navient $145.3 3.98 $24.5 0.64 $31.7 0.64 $16.7 0.78 $7.3 0.26 Not-for-Profit Servicers $49.4 2.55 $17.9 0.71 $4.8 0.23 $42.5 3.11 $9.2 0.54

(Data via Studentaid.ed.gov)

More shocking student loan debt statistics

If those numbers weren’t stunning enough, here’s a closer look at how students accumulate debt based on the type of school they attend:

69% of seniors graduating with a four-year degree in 2019 had student loan debt.

Average debt at graduation from public and nonprofit colleges was $29,900 in 2019, a 2% increase from 2018.

66% of graduates from public colleges had loans as of May 2018 (average debt of $25,550)

75% of graduates from private, nonprofit colleges had loans as of May 2018 (average debt of $32,300)

88% of graduates from for-profit colleges had loans as of May 2018 (average debt of $39,950)

Students borrowed an estimated $259 billion for the 2018-2019 academic year, and 5% of that amount was private loans.

About 17% of the student debt held by the graduating class of 2018 was private.

48% of borrowers who attended for-profit colleges default within 12 years, compared to 12% of public college attendees, and 14% of nonprofit college attendees.

(Data via TICAS.org here, here, and here, and the College Board here.)

Private student loan debt statistics

Private student loan debt volume hit an estimated $13.1 billion in the 2018-2019 academic year.

More than half of undergraduates don’t take full advantage of federal students, borrowing private loans before they’ve exhausted their available federal loans

In 2015-2016, 39% of private loan borrowers attended schools that had tuition costs of $10,000 or less.

17% of student loans for the class of 2018 were private.

Interest rates for private loans ran as high as 14.24% in April 2019.

(Data via Ticas.org here and here)

Clearly, as these student loan debt statistics show, the cost of attending college can be a heavy burden for a huge portion of Americans.

What are you doing to pay off your debt and ensure you don’t become another statistic? Be sure to let us know how we can help.

Save these statistics for yourself

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