Private Student Loans for June 2023
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2023 Student Loan Debt Statistics

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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.
Important: The Supreme Court on Feb. 28 heard arguments on two cases about the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan. The justices’ decision in the two cases could significantly impact the debt total.

Historic look at federal and private student loan debt (in millions)

QuarterTotal 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 billion38.3 million borrowers
FFEL loans$198.6 billion8.8 million borrowers
Perkins loans$3.8 billion1.3 million borrowers
Total (all federal)$1,635.4 billion43.8 million unduplicated borrowers

Federal student loan debt statistics by loan type

Stafford subsidized$293.0 billion30.4 million borrowers
Stafford unsubsidized$574.1 billion30.7 million borrowers
Stafford combined$867.1 billion34.8 million unique recipients
Grad PLUS$96.7 billion1.7 million borrowers
Parent PLUS$107.6 billion3.7 million borrowers
Perkins$3.8 billion1.3 million borrowers
Consolidation$560.3 billion11.0 million borrowers

Federal student loan debt statistics by loan status (direct loan portfolio)

Loans in repayment$10.9 billion0.3 million borrowers
Loans in deferment$98.1 billion2.8 million borrowers
Loans in forbearance$1,084.6 billion26.6 million borrowers
Loans in default (cumulative)$103.9 billion4.7 million borrowers
Loans in grace period$21.4 billion1.0 million borrowers

Federal student loan debt statistics by repayment plan (direct loan portfolio)

Level repayment plan (10 years or less)$209.6 billion10.7 million borrowers
Level repayment plan (greater than 10 years)$76.5 billion1.8 million borrowers
Graduated repayment plan (10 years or less)$85.7 billion3.0 million borrowers
Graduated repayment plan (greater than 10 years)$16.0 billion0.3 million borrowers
Income-contingent (ICR)$39.4 billion0.8 million borrowers
Income-based (IBR)$165.6 billion2.7 million borrowers
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)$113.1 billion1.5 million borrowers
Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE)$200.0 billion3.3 million borrowers
Alternative$45.0 billion1.3 million borrowers

Federal student loan debt by servicer

RepaymentDefermentForbearanceIn-schoolGrace
Outstanding (billions)Recipients (millions)Outstanding (billions)Recipients (millions)Outstanding (billions)Recipients (millions)Outstanding (billions)Recipients (millions)Outstanding (billions)Recipients (millions)
PHEAA$0.00.00$0.00.00$0.00.00$0.00.00$0.00.00
Great Lakes$1.40.03$16.30.50$186.05.39$17.00.92$3.50.18
Nelnet$1.40.05$26.80.72$293.67.46$24.01.40$4.90.22
Aidvantage$3.60.14$21.40.57$268.16.62$14.00.80$3.20.15
Nonprofit servicers$4.80.12$35.21.11$372.79.13$52.53.22$9.90.50

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

RankStateAverage balance
1District of Columbia$60,037
2Maryland$53,141
3Georgia$50,390
4Florida$50,005
5Delaware$48,863
6Alabama$47,612
7Virginia$47,507
8New Hampshire$47,072
9Illinois$46,575
10Mississippi$45,940
11New York$45,933
12North Carolina$45,680
13South Carolina$45,619
14New Jersey$45,153
15Tennessee$44,549
16Michigan$44,296
17Kentucky$43,840
18Connecticut$43,695
19Rhode Island$43,336
20Colorado$43,157
21Idaho$43,094
22Missouri$42,937
23Arkansas$42,673
24Massachusetts$42,582
25Oregon$42,332
26Pennsylvania$42,243
27Washington$42,201
28Iowa$41,599
29Arizona$41,597
30Ohio$41,552
31Texas$41,299
32California$40,945
33Nevada$40,747
34Louisiana$40,696
35Hawaii$40,263
36Wisconsin$40,096
37Alaska$39,912
38Indiana$39,907
39Montana$39,645
40Kansas$39,460
41Oklahoma$39,455
42Vermont$39,330
43North Dakota$38,665
44Utah$37,661
45Minnesota$37,651
46New Mexico$37,580
47Maine$35,778
48Nebraska$35,727
49South Dakota$34,052
50West Virginia$33,856
51Wyoming$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

 

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