2023 Student Loan Debt Statistics
Americans owe $1.78 trillion in student loan debt. That’s more than people owe on any other type of debt in the U.S., except for mortgages, though the Biden administration is trying to forgive hundreds of billions of dollars of student loan balances.
Meanwhile, 54% of bachelor’s degree recipients among the class of 2021 took out student loans, graduating with an average of $29,100 in federal and private debt.
These are just some of the latest student loan debt statistics as Americans continue to be burdened — even if government-held federal student loan payments have been paused since March 2020. (Private loan borrowers have had to continue payments throughout this period.)
Continue reading for more.
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Key student loan debt statistics
The most recently available highlights from the student loan landscape include:
- Americans owe $1.78 trillion in federal and private student loan debt as of the first quarter of 2023. That’s up 1.1% from the fourth quarter of 2022. $127.2 billion of this through Sept. 30, 2022, is private student loan debt.
- Students and parents borrowed an estimated $94.7 billion in the 2021-2022 academic year. 46% of this was federal unsubsidized loans, 16% was federal subsidized loans, 13% was Grad PLUS loans, 13% was private or other nonfederal loans and 11% was Parent PLUS loans.
- 54% of the class of 2021 bachelor’s degree recipients graduating from four-year public and private nonprofit colleges had student loan debt. They left school with an average of $29,100 in federal and private student loan debt. Those who graduated from private nonprofits had $33,000 in debt, while those from public colleges had $27,400 in debt. Private school graduates were slightly more likely to leave school with debt than public school graduates — 55% versus 53%.
- 45.3 million borrowers have federal student debt as of the second quarter of fiscal year 2022. That’s down slightly from 45.4 million in the second quarter of fiscal year 2021. (It’s harder to nail down fresh data on the number of borrowers with private student loans.) The average monthly payment on a student loan is between $200 and $299 a month, though this figure is pre-pandemic because of the federal moratorium.
- 0.67% of student loans were 90 days or more delinquent as of the first quarter of 2023. That’s down from 0.87% in the prior quarter and 10.75% in the first quarter of 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
- The pause on government-held federal student loan payments has been extended eight times since March 2020. It’s now set to end once a resolution is reached on student loan forgiveness. If not, payments will restart 60 days after June 30, 2023.
Historic look at federal and private student loan debt (in millions)
| Quarter | Total debt (in millions) |
|---|---|
| Q1 2006 | $480,967 |
| Q2 2006 | $487,126 |
| Q3 2006 | $510,548 |
| Q4 2006 | $521,382 |
| Q1 2007 | $544,989 |
| Q2 2007 | $549,271 |
| Q3 2007 | $577,381 |
| Q4 2007 | $589,489 |
| Q1 2008 | $619,316 |
| Q2 2008 | $626,606 |
| Q3 2008 | $660,584 |
| Q4 2008 | $675,953 |
| Q1 2009 | $707,227 |
| Q2 2009 | $712,319 |
| Q3 2009 | $746,523 |
| Q4 2009 | $771,700 |
| Q1 2010 | $800,070 |
| Q2 2010 | $811,149 |
| Q3 2010 | $845,805 |
| Q4 2010 | $855,483 |
| Q1 2011 | $896,848 |
| Q2 2011 | $905,157 |
| Q3 2011 | $940,339 |
| Q4 2011 | $959,824 |
| Q1 2012 | $994,280 |
| Q2 2012 | $1,011,260 |
| Q3 2012 | $1,041,034 |
| Q4 2012 | $1,054,565 |
| Q1 2013 | $1,092,014 |
| Q2 2013 | $1,099,607 |
| Q3 2013 | $1,134,181 |
| Q4 2013 | $1,145,551 |
| Q1 2014 | $1,182,061 |
| Q2 2014 | $1,190,489 |
| Q3 2014 | $1,226,394 |
| Q4 2014 | $1,235,751 |
| Q1 2015 | $1,271,845 |
| Q2 2015 | $1,278,765 |
| Q3 2015 | $1,311,766 |
| Q4 2015 | $1,320,248 |
| Q1 2016 | $1,358,137 |
| Q2 2016 | $1,365,270 |
| Q3 2016 | $1,398,573 |
| Q4 2016 | $1,405,332 |
| Q1 2017 | $1,440,359 |
| Q2 2017 | $1,446,680 |
| Q3 2017 | $1,479,030 |
| Q4 2017 | $1,488,895 |
| Q1 2018 | $1,523,344 |
| Q2 2018 | $1,530,757 |
| Q3 2018 | $1,560,682 |
| Q4 2018 | $1,566,903 |
| Q1 2019 | $1,597,654 |
| Q2 2019 | $1,603,293 |
| Q3 2019 | $1,635,132 |
| Q4 2019 | $1,637,881 |
| Q1 2020 | $1,671,969 |
| Q2 2020 | $1,672,503 |
| Q3 2020 | $1,696,475 |
| Q4 2020 | $1,693,860 |
| Q1 2021 | $1,718,707 |
| Q2 2021 | $1,719,068 |
| Q3 2021 | $1,739,444 |
| Q4 2021 | $1,733,415 |
| Q1 2022 | $1,747,456 |
| Q2 2022 | $1,744,007 |
| Q3 2022 | $1,761,742 |
| Q4 2022 | $1,762,171 |
| Q1 2023 | $1,782,321 |
Source: Federal Reserve
Federal student loan portfolio
Federal Student Aid — part of the U.S. Department of Education — data allows us to dive into how much federal student loan debt borrowers carry by loan type, repayment plan and more. The following data — except for the servicer information, which is as of December 2022 — is from the first quarter of 2023.
Federal student loan debt statistics summary
| Direct loans | $1,432.9 billion | 38.3 million borrowers |
| FFEL loans | $198.6 billion | 8.8 million borrowers |
| Perkins loans | $3.8 billion | 1.3 million borrowers |
| Total (all federal) | $1,635.4 billion | 43.8 million unduplicated borrowers |
Federal student loan debt statistics by loan type
| Stafford subsidized | $293.0 billion | 30.4 million borrowers |
| Stafford unsubsidized | $574.1 billion | 30.7 million borrowers |
| Stafford combined | $867.1 billion | 34.8 million unique recipients |
| Grad PLUS | $96.7 billion | 1.7 million borrowers |
| Parent PLUS | $107.6 billion | 3.7 million borrowers |
| Perkins | $3.8 billion | 1.3 million borrowers |
| Consolidation | $560.3 billion | 11.0 million borrowers |
Federal student loan debt statistics by loan status (direct loan portfolio)
| Loans in repayment | $10.9 billion | 0.3 million borrowers |
| Loans in deferment | $98.1 billion | 2.8 million borrowers |
| Loans in forbearance | $1,084.6 billion | 26.6 million borrowers |
| Loans in default (cumulative) | $103.9 billion | 4.7 million borrowers |
| Loans in grace period | $21.4 billion | 1.0 million borrowers |
Federal student loan debt statistics by repayment plan (direct loan portfolio)
| Level repayment plan (10 years or less) | $209.6 billion | 10.7 million borrowers |
| Level repayment plan (greater than 10 years) | $76.5 billion | 1.8 million borrowers |
| Graduated repayment plan (10 years or less) | $85.7 billion | 3.0 million borrowers |
| Graduated repayment plan (greater than 10 years) | $16.0 billion | 0.3 million borrowers |
| Income-contingent (ICR) | $39.4 billion | 0.8 million borrowers |
| Income-based (IBR) | $165.6 billion | 2.7 million borrowers |
| Pay As You Earn (PAYE) | $113.1 billion | 1.5 million borrowers |
| Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) | $200.0 billion | 3.3 million borrowers |
| Alternative | $45.0 billion | 1.3 million borrowers |
Federal 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 | $0.0 | 0.00 | $0.0 | 0.00 | $0.0 | 0.00 | $0.0 | 0.00 | $0.0 | 0.00 | |||||
| Great Lakes | $1.4 | 0.03 | $16.3 | 0.50 | $186.0 | 5.39 | $17.0 | 0.92 | $3.5 | 0.18 | |||||
| Nelnet | $1.4 | 0.05 | $26.8 | 0.72 | $293.6 | 7.46 | $24.0 | 1.40 | $4.9 | 0.22 | |||||
| Aidvantage | $3.6 | 0.14 | $21.4 | 0.57 | $268.1 | 6.62 | $14.0 | 0.80 | $3.2 | 0.15 | |||||
| Nonprofit servicers | $4.8 | 0.12 | $35.2 | 1.11 | $372.7 | 9.13 | $52.5 | 3.22 | $9.9 | 0.50 | |||||
Federal and private student loan debt by state
If you’ve asked “But what about in my state?”, we have that data, too.
Here’s a LendingTree analysis of student loan debt by state based on anonymized credit reports of more than 150,000 LendingTree users in December 2022.
Average student loan debt by state
| Rank | State | Average balance |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | District of Columbia | $60,037 |
| 2 | Maryland | $53,141 |
| 3 | Georgia | $50,390 |
| 4 | Florida | $50,005 |
| 5 | Delaware | $48,863 |
| 6 | Alabama | $47,612 |
| 7 | Virginia | $47,507 |
| 8 | New Hampshire | $47,072 |
| 9 | Illinois | $46,575 |
| 10 | Mississippi | $45,940 |
| 11 | New York | $45,933 |
| 12 | North Carolina | $45,680 |
| 13 | South Carolina | $45,619 |
| 14 | New Jersey | $45,153 |
| 15 | Tennessee | $44,549 |
| 16 | Michigan | $44,296 |
| 17 | Kentucky | $43,840 |
| 18 | Connecticut | $43,695 |
| 19 | Rhode Island | $43,336 |
| 20 | Colorado | $43,157 |
| 21 | Idaho | $43,094 |
| 22 | Missouri | $42,937 |
| 23 | Arkansas | $42,673 |
| 24 | Massachusetts | $42,582 |
| 25 | Oregon | $42,332 |
| 26 | Pennsylvania | $42,243 |
| 27 | Washington | $42,201 |
| 28 | Iowa | $41,599 |
| 29 | Arizona | $41,597 |
| 30 | Ohio | $41,552 |
| 31 | Texas | $41,299 |
| 32 | California | $40,945 |
| 33 | Nevada | $40,747 |
| 34 | Louisiana | $40,696 |
| 35 | Hawaii | $40,263 |
| 36 | Wisconsin | $40,096 |
| 37 | Alaska | $39,912 |
| 38 | Indiana | $39,907 |
| 39 | Montana | $39,645 |
| 40 | Kansas | $39,460 |
| 41 | Oklahoma | $39,455 |
| 42 | Vermont | $39,330 |
| 43 | North Dakota | $38,665 |
| 44 | Utah | $37,661 |
| 45 | Minnesota | $37,651 |
| 46 | New Mexico | $37,580 |
| 47 | Maine | $35,778 |
| 48 | Nebraska | $35,727 |
| 49 | South Dakota | $34,052 |
| 50 | West Virginia | $33,856 |
| 51 | Wyoming | $29,809 |
Source: Analysis of anonymized credit reports of more than 150,000 LendingTree users in December 2022. Note: Includes federal and private student loans.
Private student loan debt statistics
While certain sources track federal and private student loan data together, some gather based on private loans alone. Here’s a closer look at some stats in that realm:
- Americans owe an estimated $127.2 billion to private student lenders as of the third quarter of 2022. This accounts for an estimated 7.2% of total outstanding federal and private student loan debt.
- 12 contributors to an Enterval Analytics report — Citizens Bank, Discover Student Loans, Navient, PNC Bank, Sallie Mae, College Ave Student Loans, Navy Federal Credit Union, South Carolina Student Loan, Vermont Student Assistance Corporation (VSAC), INvestEd, the North Carolina State Education Assistance Authority (NCSEAA) and the New Hampshire Higher Education Assistance Foundation (NHHEAF) Network — account for $56.6 billion of that $127.2 billion total.
- Undergraduate loans account for 89.1% and graduate loans account for 10.9% of the outstanding balance held by those 12 contributors.
- Among the private student loans held by the contributors as of the end of the third quarter of 2022, 74.9% were in repayment, 17.3% were in deferment, 6.5% were in a grace period and 1.3% were in forbearance.
- 1.6% of private student loans were 90 days or more delinquent as of the third quarter of 2022, compared with 0.9% the year prior.
- 90.8% of undergraduate and 65.9% of graduate private loans were cosigned during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Borrowers not eligible for loan forgiveness (more on forgiveness next) could consider refinancing their student loans to combine multiple loans into one. But make sure to explore all your options first.
Public Service Loan Forgiveness statistics
LendingTree has an in-depth student loan forgiveness statistics roundup that looks at various types of programs, but we thought we’d provide a separate breakdown of the latest on the most impactful program — Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF).
The Federal Student Aid data here is through January 2023 — the latest available — and looks at the PSLF programs as a whole, including PSLF, Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) and limited waiver:
- PSLF borrowers with one or more approved PSLF employment certification forms and a positive loan balance: 1,727,088
- Borrowers who submitted forgiveness applications: 2,704,482 (versus 1,820,509 through October 2022)
- Unique borrowers granted PSLF (PSLF, TEPSLF and waiver): 388,216 (versus 233,320 through October 2022)
- Average balance forgiven (PSLF, TEPSLF and waiver): $68,707 (versus $63,826 through October 2022)
Sources
- LendingTree
- Federal Reserve
- CollegeBoard
- Enterval Analytics
- Federal Student Aid (here and here)
- Federal Reserve Bank of New York