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Student Loan Debt Statistics

Matt Schulz

Written by  Matt Schulz

Dan Shepard

Edited by  Dan Shepard

Updated
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Americans owe $1.86 trillion in student loan debt. This page examines key student loan debt statistics and the financial burdens borrowers face.

Key student loan debt statistics
  • Americans owe $1.86 trillion in federal and private student loan debt as of the second quarter of 2026. That’s up 3.1% from the second quarter of 2025. As of March 2026, $138.8 billion of that total was private student loan debt.
  • Students and parents borrowed an estimated $102.6 billion in the 2024-25 academic year. Of that amount, 44% was from federal unsubsidized loans, 15% from federal subsidized loans, 15% from Grad PLUS loans, 14% from private or other nonfederal loans and 12% from Parent PLUS loans.
  • 47% of 2024 bachelor’s degree recipients at four-year public and private nonprofit colleges had student loan debt. They left school with an average of $29,560 in federal and private student loan debt. Those who graduated from private nonprofits had an average of $34,420 in debt, compared with $27,420 for those from public colleges. Private nonprofit college graduates were more likely to leave school with debt than public college graduates — 49% versus 47%.
  • 44.6 million borrowers had federal student debt as of the third quarter of fiscal year 2025. That’s down from 45.2 million as of the second quarter of fiscal year 2024.
  • 10.60% of student loans were 90 days or more delinquent as of the second quarter of 2026. That’s up from 10.16% in the second quarter of 2025 and 5.69% in the second quarter of 2021.

Historical federal and private student loan debt

QuarterTotal debt (in millions)
2026 Q21,858,180.59
2026 Q11,862,697.60
2025 Q41,834,690.10
2025 Q31,832,977.45
2025 Q21,802,607.02
2025 Q11,805,464.60
2024 Q41,778,376.73
2024 Q31,772,891.41
2024 Q21,741,137.84
2024 Q11,753,333.67
2023 Q41,729,139.14
2023 Q31,732,575.35
2023 Q21,761,243.55
2023 Q11,774,909.90
2022 Q41,764,067.42
2022 Q31,761,742.00
2022 Q21,744,007.00
2022 Q11,747,455.51
2021 Q41,733,415.18
2021 Q31,739,443.83
2021 Q21,719,067.51
2021 Q11,718,706.55
2020 Q41,693,860.24
2020 Q31,696,474.62
2020 Q21,672,503.14
2020 Q11,671,968.77
2019 Q41,637,880.70
2019 Q31,635,131.96
2019 Q21,603,292.89
2019 Q11,597,654.09
2018 Q41,566,903.43
2018 Q31,560,681.66
2018 Q21,530,756.56
2018 Q11,523,343.76
2017 Q41,488,895.48
2017 Q31,479,029.56
2017 Q21,446,680.08
2017 Q11,440,358.58
2016 Q41,405,332.16
2016 Q31,398,573.20
2016 Q21,365,269.84
2016 Q11,358,137.43
2015 Q41,320,248.14
2015 Q31,311,766.41
2015 Q21,278,764.93
2015 Q11,271,844.96
2014 Q41,235,751.47
2014 Q31,226,394.05
2014 Q21,190,488.72
2014 Q11,182,061.18
2013 Q41,145,550.75
2013 Q31,134,180.98
2013 Q21,099,606.80
2013 Q11,092,013.85
2012 Q41,054,565.10
2012 Q31,041,034.03
2012 Q21,011,259.92
2012 Q1994,279.74
2011 Q4959,823.95
2011 Q3940,339.02
2011 Q2905,157.15
2011 Q1896,848.43
2010 Q4855,483.43
2010 Q3845,804.79
2010 Q2811,148.77
2010 Q1800,069.82
2009 Q4771,699.75
2009 Q3746,522.52
2009 Q2712,319.15
2009 Q1707,226.81
2008 Q4675,952.58
2008 Q3660,584.20
2008 Q2626,605.60
2008 Q1619,315.88
2007 Q4589,489.28
2007 Q3577,380.56
2007 Q2549,270.83
2007 Q1544,988.55
2006 Q4521,382.49
2006 Q3510,548.46
2006 Q2487,126.04
2006 Q1480,966.98
Source: Federal Reserve.

Federal student loan portfolio

Data from the U.S. Department of Education’s Federal Student Aid office shows how federal student loan debt is distributed by loan program, repayment plan and more. 

The following data are from the second fiscal quarter of 2026 (except for servicer information, which is from March 2026).

Federal student loan debt statistics by loan program

Loan programDollars outstandingRecipients
Direct loans$1,562.9 billion38.5 million borrowers
FFELs$158.3 billion6.5 million borrowers
Perkins loans$2.7 billion0.8 million borrowers
Total (all federal)$1,723.9 billion42.6 million unduplicated borrowers

Federal student loan debt statistics by loan type

Loan typeDollars outstandingRecipients
Stafford subsidized$301.1 billion30.2 million borrowers
Stafford unsubsidized$642.1 billion31.1 million borrowers
Stafford combined$943.2 billion35.1 million unique recipients
Grad PLUS$130.3 billion1.9 million borrowers
Parent PLUS$117.9 billion3.5 million borrowers
Perkins$2.7 billion0.8 million borrowers
Consolidation$529.7 billion9.1 million borrowers

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

Loan statusDollars outstandingRecipients
Loans in repayment$612.0 billion16.7 million borrowers
Loans in deferment$154.1 billion3.5 million borrowers
Loans in forbearance$474.7 billion8.4 million borrowers
Loans in default (cumulative)$175.3 billion7.2 million borrowers
Loans in grace period$22.1 billion1.2 million borrowers

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

Repayment planDollars outstandingRecipients
Level repayment plan (10 years or less)$272.2 billion11.95 million borrowers
Level repayment plan (greater than 10 years)$81.1 billion1.54 million borrowers
Graduated repayment plan (10 years or less)$63.3 billion2.10 million borrowers
Graduated repayment plan (greater than 10 years)$36.6 billion0.64 million borrowers
Income-contingent (ICR)$55.9 billion1.30 million borrowers
Income-based (IBR)$197.0 billion2.92 million borrowers
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)$127.9 billion1.53 million borrowers
SAVE$383.0 billion6.99 million borrowers
Alternative$13.5 billion0.43 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)
Nelnet$212.45.6$51.51.2$172.43.2$32.11.6$8.00.4
Aidvantage$165.74.5$39.30.9$115.12.1$27.41.4$4.60.3
Mohela$124.73.0$29.50.7$133.31.8$22.41.0$3.90.2
Edfinancial$97.03.1$27.40.7$59.51.3$26.81.2$4.50.2
CRI$32.91.7$8.80.3$4.20.1$8.10.7$1.00.1
Source: Federal Student Aid.

Federal, private student loan debt by state

LendingTree analyzed anonymized credit reports from more than 400,000 LendingTree users in the first quarter of 2026 to compare student loan debt by state.

Average student loan debt by state

RankStateAvg. balance
1District of Columbia$69,200
2Maryland$60,321
3Hawaii$55,615
4Georgia$54,836
5Delaware$54,821
6Illinois$54,610
7New York$54,504
8California$53,651
9New Jersey$53,592
10Connecticut$53,515
11South Carolina$53,189
12Florida$52,434
13Vermont$52,086
14Virginia$51,977
15Mississippi$51,825
16Pennsylvania$50,735
17North Carolina$50,292
18Alabama$50,128
19Oregon$49,872
20Massachusetts$49,267
21Alaska$48,973
22New Hampshire$48,678
23Washington$48,287
24Nevada$48,286
25Minnesota$48,261
26Maine$47,716
27Michigan$47,710
28Missouri$47,561
29Ohio$47,372
30Arizona$47,231
31Rhode Island$46,834
32Montana$46,591
33Tennessee$46,492
34Texas$46,393
35Idaho$45,989
36Colorado$45,698
37Utah$45,643
38Arkansas$44,920
39New Mexico$44,803
40Kentucky$44,658
41Nebraska$44,138
42Indiana$43,600
43South Dakota$43,401
44Louisiana$43,129
45North Dakota$43,067
46Wisconsin$42,721
47Iowa$42,485
48Oklahoma$42,238
49West Virginia$41,197
50Kansas$40,961
51Wyoming$40,237
Source: LendingTree analysis of anonymized credit reports from more than 400,000 LendingTree users in the first quarter of 2026. Note: Data include federal and private student loans. Average student loan balances include only consumers with active student loans and positive balances.

Private student loan debt statistics

While some sources track federal and private student loan data together, others track private loans separately. Here’s a closer look at private student loan statistics:

  • Americans owe an estimated $138.8 billion to private student lenders as of March 2026. This accounts for an estimated 7.5% of total outstanding federal and private student loan debt.
  • The 14 contributors to the Enterval Analytics Private Student Loan Report — Citizens Bank, Navient, Sallie Mae Bank, SoFi, College Ave and nine members of the Education Finance Council — account for 77.5% of outstanding private student loan debt.
  • Undergraduate loans account for 89.8% and graduate loans for 10.2% of the outstanding balance held by those contributors.
  • Among the private student loans held by those contributors as of the end of the first quarter of 2026, 74.4% were in repayment, 20.7% were in deferment, 2.7% were in a grace period and 2.2% were in forbearance.
  • 1.6% of private student loans were 90 days or more delinquent as of the first quarter of 2026, unchanged from a year earlier.
  • During the 2025-26 academic year, 96.5% of undergraduate and 73.1% of graduate private loans were cosigned.

Public Service Loan Forgiveness statistics

Here’s the latest on the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program.

The Federal Student Aid data here is through April 2026 — the latest available — and looks at the PSLF program as a whole, including PSLF, Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) and the limited waiver:

  • PSLF borrowers with one or more approved PSLF employment certification forms and a positive loan balance: 2,657,000
  • Total combined PSLF forms submitted: 4,661,000, with 1,395,000 closed or canceled forms
  • Unique borrowers granted combined PSLF (PSLF, TEPSLF and waiver): 1,254,800 (versus 1,220,500 through January 2026)
  • Average balance forgiven (PSLF, TEPSLF and waiver): $74,400 (versus $74,300 through January 2026)

Sources

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