Student Loan Debt Statistics for 2017 Show Americans Are Burdened With Record Breaking Student Loan Debt
Student loan debt statistics show 44 million Americans owe over $1.4 trillion in student loan debt. The total debt is also more than double the $620 billion Americans owe on credit card debt.
A Class of 2016 graduate has roughly $37,172 in student loan debt. This is a six percent increase from last year.
General Student Loan Debt Facts
First of all, let’s start with a general picture of the student loan debt landscape. The most recent reports indicate there is:
- $1.44 trillion in total U.S. student loan debt
- 44.2 million Americans with student loan debt
- Student loan delinquency rate of 11.2% (90+ days delinquent or in default)
- Average monthly student loan payment (for borrower aged 20 to 30 years): $351
- Median monthly student loan payment (for borrower aged 20 to 30 years): $203
(Data via federalreserve.gov, newyorkfed.org here, here and here and clevelandfed.org here)
Federal Student Loan Portfolio
When you break down the debt student loan borrowers carry by loan type, term, and more, the numbers are staggering. These numbers were updated by the United States Department of Education at the end of the second quarter of 2017.
Student Loan Debt Statistics By Loan Program:
| Direct Loans | $1,003.3 billion | 32.1 million borrowers |
| FFEL Loans | $320.5 billion | 15.7 million borrowers |
| Perkins Loans | $7.9 billion | 2.6 million borrowers |
| Total (All Federal) | $1,331.7 billion | 42.3 million borrowers |
Student Loan Debt Statistics By Loan Type:
| Stafford Subsidized | $272.5 billion | 29.4 million borrowers |
| Stafford Unsubsidized | $449.6 billion | 27.9 million borrowers |
| Stafford combined | $722.2 billion | 32.6 million unique recipients |
| Grad PLUS | $55.7 billion | 1.1 million borrowers |
| Parent PLUS | $81.5 billion | 3.4 million borrowers |
| Perkins | $7.9 billion | 2.6 million borrowers |
| Consolidation | $464.5 billion | 12.0 million borrowers |
Data via Studentaid.ed.gov
Student Loan Debt Statistics By Loan Status (Direct Loan Program)
| Loans in repayment | $535.6 billion | 16.6 million borrowers |
| Loans in deferment | $112.9 billion | 3.6 million borrowers |
| Loans in forbearance | $100.1 billion | 2.6 million borrowers |
| Loans in default | $74.9 billion | 4.3 million borrowers |
| Loans in grace period | $26.2 billion | 1.4 million borrowers |
Student Loan Debt Statistics By Repayment Plan (Direct Loan Program)
| Level Repayment Plan(10 years or less) | $199.6 billion | 11.15 million borrowers |
| Level Repayment Plan(greater than 10 years) | $74.9 billion | 1.68 million borrowers |
| Graduated repayment plan(10 years or less) | $75.4 billion | 2.83 million borrowers |
| Graduated repayment plan(greater than 10 years) | $13.6 billion | 0.29 million borrowers |
| Income-Contingent (ICR) | $25.5 billion | 0.61 million borrowers |
| Income-Based (IBR) | $171.6 billion | 3.01 million borrowers |
| Pay As You Earn (PAYE) | $56.1 billion | 1.10 million borrowers |
| Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) | $77.0 billion | 1.52 million borrowers |
Student Loan Debt By Servicer
(updated on June 30, 2016)
[pdf-embedder url=”https://mfi-miami.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/Student-loan-debt-by-servicer-1.pdf” title=”Student loan debt by servicer”]
More Shocking Student Loan Debt Statistics
Student loan debt based on the type of school borrowers attend is also even more staggering. Most noteworthy is that a whopping 71% percent of students graduating from four-year colleges and universities in 2012 had student loan debt:
- Represents 1.3 million students graduating with debt, increase from 1.1 million in 2008
- 66 percent of graduates from public colleges had loans (average debt of $25,550)
- 75 percent of graduates from private nonprofit colleges had loans (average debt of $32,300)
- 88 percent of graduates from for-profit colleges had loans (average debt of $39,950)
In addition, 20% of 2012 graduate loans were private.
Graduates who received Pell Grants were also likely to borrow, and borrow more:
- 88 percent of graduates who received Pell Grants had student loans in 2012, with an average balance of $31,200
- 53 percent of those who didn’t receive a Pell Grant had student loan debt and borrowed $4,750 less ($26,450)
(Data via Ticas.org)
Private Student Loan Debt Statistics
Private student loan debt is also on the rise with nearly $6.2 billion was borrowed in 2012-2013. Consequently, this has also increased the dollar amount of overall debt by $5.5 billion in 2011-2012.
It seems like borrowers didn’t take advantage of federal student loans as much as they could have in the 2011-2012 school year.
Statistics show also show only 19% didn’t take out Stafford loans and nearly 8% didn’t apply for federal financial aid. They also show only 11% applied for federal aid but didn’t take out a Stafford loan and 28% had Stafford loans but borrowed less than they were eligible for.
In addition, 48% of private loan borrowers attended schools but had tuition costs of $10,000 or less for 2011-2012.
Furthermore, nearly 1.4 million undergraduates borrowed private loans in 2011-2012
(Data via Ticas.org)
Graduate Student Loan Debt
Furthermore, about 40 percent of the $1 trillion student loan debt was used to finance graduate and professional degrees.
Combined undergraduate and graduate debt by degree:
- MBA = $42,000 (11% of graduate degrees)
- MA. Ed. = $50,879 (16%)
- M.S. = $50,400 (18%)
- M.A. = $58,539 (8%)
- Law = $140,616 (4%)
- Medicine and health sciences = $161,772 (5%)
Consequently, as these student loan debt statistics show, the cost of attending college is becoming a growing burden for a huge portion of Americans.
(Data via 2012 Newamerica.org study)
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