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How Many Americans Have Student Loan Debt?
Nearly 1 in 5 adults in the United States carry student loan debt.
Anna Helhoski is a senior writer covering economic news and trends in consumer finance at NerdWallet. She is also an authority on student loans. She joined NerdWallet in 2014. Her work has appeared in The Associated Press, The New York Times, The Washington Post and USA Today. She previously covered local news in the New York metro area for the Daily Voice and New York state politics for The Legislative Gazette. She holds a bachelor's degree in journalism from Purchase College, State University of New York.
Eliza Haverstock Lead Writer | Student loan repayment, paying for college
Eliza Haverstock is NerdWallet's higher education writer, where she covers all aspects of college affordability and student loans. Previously, she reported on billionaires and investing for Forbes in New York, and she also covered private markets for PitchBook in Seattle. Eliza got started at her college newspaper at the University of Virginia and interned for Bloomberg, where she spent a summer writing a feature story about plastic straws. She is based in Washington, D.C.
Des Toups Lead Assigning Editor | Student loans, repaying college debt, paying for college
Des Toups was a lead assigning editor who supported the student loans and auto loans teams. He had decades of experience in personal finance journalism, exploring everything from car insurance to bankruptcy to couponing to side hustles.
Many or all of the products featured here are from our partners who compensate us. This influences which products we write about and where and how the product appears on a page. However, this does not influence our evaluations. Our opinions are our own. Here is a list of our partners and here's how we make money.
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About 45 million Americans have student loans, according to the most recent data from the U.S. Department of Education. That means nearly one in five (17.4%) adults in the United States carry student loan debt, per an analysis of census data.
Total outstanding student loan debt is $1.76 trillion, according to third quarter of 2022 data from the federal government. Private student loan debt comprises around 7.89% of that total, or around $131.1 billion, according to 2021 data from MeasureOne, a higher education data and analytics firm.
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A typical student loan borrower, statistically, has left school with nearly $30,000 in debt. The average among the class of 2020 was $28,400, according to College Board. About 25% went to graduate school, according to the Brookings Institution; the rest sought associate or bachelor’s degrees.
In general, women borrow more for college compared with men, and Black students borrow more compared with all other races and ethnicities.
Student debt is most common in the 25-to-34 age group, but the greatest amount of debt is owed by those 35 to 49 — more than $600 billion in undergraduate, graduate and parent loans, as well as payments stretched out by forbearance or income-driven repayment plans.
Student loan debt by age
The age group with the most federal student debt is 35- to 49-year-olds, with $634.2 billion. But the most borrowers are in the 25-to-34 age group. Here’s how student loan debt breaks down by age:
Age group
Millions of borrowers
Billions in debt
24 and younger
7.3
$104.5
25 to 34
15
$497.6
35 to 49
14.6
$634.2
50 to 61
6.5
$293.4
62 and older
2.6
$107.3
Source
Studentaid.gov, Federal Student Loan Portfolio, Portfolio by Age, Q4 2022
Typical debt amounts by age group
Across all age groups, the typical amount of student debt for most borrowers is between $10,000 and $40,000. Those ages 35 to 49 are the group with the greatest amount of high debt ($200,000 and more). Here’s a more detailed picture of the typical amounts held by each group:
Among those 24 and younger, most (1.95 million) have between $5,000 and $10,000 of student debt.
Among 25- to 34-year-olds, most (3.75 million) have between $20,000 and $40,000 of student debt.
Among 35- to 49-year-olds, most (2.97 million) have between $20,000 and $40,000 of student debt.
Among 50- to 61-year-olds, most (1.2 million) have between $20,000 and $40,000 of student debt.
Among those age 62 and older, most (500,000) have less than $5,000 of debt.
Source: Studentaid.gov, Federal Student Loan Portfolio by Age and Debt Size, Sept. 30, 2022.
Student loan debt by race and gender
Asian and Hispanic student loan borrowers have the lowest debt loads compared with all other races and ethnicities, while Black student loan borrowers tend to hold the greatest average debt, federal data shows.
The average debt disparity is exacerbated even further for Black women, who carry higher average debt than women across all races and ethnicities, according to the American Association of University Women.
Here’s what average student debt looks like for men and women across race and ethnicity:
Race/ethnicity
Women
Men
Asian
$25,252
$25,507
Black
$37,558
$35,665
Hispanic or Latinx
$27,029
$27,452
White
$31,346
$29,862
Source
American Association of University Women, "Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans in the Time of COVID," 2020 analysis of federal data
Women hold two-thirds of all outstanding loan debt compared with men, according to an analysis of federal data by the AAUW. There's little data available that includes gender-nonconforming student borrowers.
One of the primary reasons women hold more debt is because they earn the majority of degrees at all levels — from certificates to doctor’s degrees, according to federal data.
But carrying greater amounts of debt is a problem since women, by and large, tend to have less earning power than men: Women with bachelor’s degrees earn, on average, 74 cents on the dollar compared with men with that degree, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
The largest average debt loads are held by women who attend for-profit four-year schools — about 44% more than women who attend public four-year institutions. Here’s what student debt totals for women look like across types of four-year institutions:
Type of institution
Mean debt borrowed by women
Public four-year
$29,611
Private nonprofit four-year
$32,086
For-profit four-year
$42,778
Source
American Association of University Women, "Deeper in Debt: Women and Student Loans in the Time of COVID," 2020 analysis of federal data
1. 2022 College Board
2. 2019-20 National Center for Education Statistics
3. Q4 2023, Federal Student Aid Portfolio
4. 2019-20 National Center for Education Statistics
5. 2019-20 National Center for Education Statistics
6. 2023 Association of American Medical Colleges
7. 2022 American Dental Education Association
8. 2023 American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy
9. 2017 American Association of Colleges of Nursing
10. 2022 American Veterinary Medical Association
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