In the academic year 2022/23, the average student loan debt for a four-year bachelor's degree from a public college in the United States was 29,300 U.S. dollars. In comparison, student loan debt from a private for-profit college averaged almost 34,000 U.S. dollars.

Statistics on student debt, including the average debt at graduation, the percentage of graduates who owed large debt at graduation and the percentage of graduates with debt who had paid it off at the time of the interview, are presented by the province of study and the level of study. Estimates are available at five-year intervals.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, Black women were the most likely demographic to have student loan debt in the United States, with **** percent of Black women who had attended some college or higher reporting a student loan balance. In comparison, **** percent of Hispanic women and **** percent of White women in the United States with at least some college or higher had student loan debt in 2022.

The average amount of debt for university graduates from the class of 2023 in the United States was 29,374 U.S. dollars, an increase from the 21,211 U.S. dollars of debt that graduates from the class of 2008 had on average.

In 2025, students graduating from English universities will have incurred an average of 53,000 British pounds of student loan debt, compared with 39,000 pounds in Wales, 28,000 pounds in Northern Ireland, and around 18,000 pounds in Scotland.

The Biden-Harris Administration released a plan to cancel federal student loans for 43 million borrowers on August 24, 2022. While the Supreme Court struck down the Biden-Harris' student debt relief plan on June 30, 2023, the White House is now planning to use the Higher Education Act of 1965, a federal law that governs the student loan program, to bring about relief for student borrowers. This article estimates the potential impact of broad-based student debt relief on racial and ethnic wealth gaps. On average, federal student debt potentially eligible for relief explains 3% of the White-Black wealth gaps, suggesting that broad-based student debt relief could significantly mitigate racial wealth inequities.Note: This is data and code accompanying the article.

In the academic year of 2021/22, students who took out student loans for private, nonprofit four-year colleges had an average of 33,600 U.S. dollars worth of debt upon completion of their degree. The per borrower category shows the average amount of debt amongst bachelor's degree recipients who had taken student loans.

In the United States in 2022, ** percent of Gen Z respondents reported that they delayed buying or leasing a car as a result of their student loan debt, followed by ** percent who said that they put off saving for retirement specifically because of their student loan debt.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S government paused payments on federal student loans starting on March 13, 2020, moving billions of dollars of student debt into forbearance. Forbearance means that no payments need to be made, with the interest rate set to zero percent. In the second quarter of 2022 and 2023, the majority of federal student loans remained in forbearance, totaling over 1000 billion U.S. dollars. However, loan repayments and interest rates restarted in October 2023, lowering the amount of student loans in forbearance to **** billion U.S. dollars as of Q2 2024.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, ** percent of adults said that vocational training or other professional certification programs were definitely worth the price, more than other higher education institutions. Undergraduate education at private universities, for-profit, was perceived by adults as the least likely to be worth the price out of the other types. The student debt crisis In the United States, the amount of outstanding student loan debt has skyrocketed in the last few years, ultimately outpacing all other forms of household debt. As of the first quarter of 2024, Americans owed over **** trillion U.S. dollars in student loans, likely influenced by increasing college tuition prices at a time of rising living costs and little wage growth. By the 2020/21 academic year, the average cost of attending a four-year postsecondary institution in the U.S. reached over ****** U.S. dollars, a price which may triple for Americans attending private and non-profit schools. In that same year, the average student debt for a bachelor's degree in totaled almost ****** U.S. dollars, depicting an increase in the amount of Americans taking on larger debts to attend higher education - an agreement which ultimately leads to an even greater outstanding balance from accrued interest. Despite a three-and-a-half-year pause on monthly student loan payments during the COVID-19 pandemic which aimed to alleviate the economic burden faced by over ** million borrowers, most Americans still struggle to afford these payments. Cutting out college costs As the cost of college - and the resulting student debt - remains on the rise in the U.S., more and more university graduates have been found to be struggling financially, often having difficulty affording bills and other living expenses. Such financial hardships have also caused significant disruption to the lives of younger Americans, with a 2022 survey showing that around a ******* of Gen Z were unable to save for retirement or emergencies and had to delay homeownership and having children due to their student debt. Consequently, debates have arisen over whether the benefits of higher education still exceed the costs in the U.S., with many beginning to doubt that getting a college degree is worth the financial risk. While tuition costs remain at an all-time high, it is probable that financing a college degree may be detrimental for those Americans who have fewer resources and are unable to fund higher education without going into a significant amount of debt.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, all surveyed adults with student loan debt who had stopped out of college in the United States said that they would need at least 70 percent of their loan forgiven to reenroll in college on average. In comparison, White adults and adults who had stopped out of a bachelor's degree program said that they would need at least 74 percent of their loan forgiven to reenroll on average.

In 2022/23 there were estimated to be over **** million students enrolled in higher education courses in the United Kingdom, which was the highest number of enrolled students during this provided time period. Although the number of students in the UK fell from *** million in 2011/12 to **** by 2014/15, this trend reversed in subsequent years, reaching the peak in the most recent year. Largest UK universities At ******* students, the mainly remote, Open University had the largest number of students enrolled among UK-based higher education institutions in 2022/23. University College London had the second-highest number of students at ******, followed by the University of Manchester at ******. At the UK's two oldest and most prestigious universities, Oxford and Cambridge, there were ******, and ****** students respectively. The university with the most students in Scotland was the University of Glasgow at *******students, with Wales' being Cardiff University at ****** students, and Northern Ireland's Ulster University having ****** students. Student Debt in the UK For students that graduated from English universities in 2024, the average student loan debt incurred over the course of their studies was over ****** British pounds. Although students graduated with less debt from universities in Wales, Northern Ireland, and especially Scotland, this too has been growing recently. In 2024, students from Scottish Universities graduated with an average of ****** pounds of debt, compared with ****** in Wales, and ****** in Northern Ireland. The overall outstanding student loan debt in the UK reached over *** billion pounds in 2023/24, with the vast majority of this debt from students who studied in England.

The value of outstanding student loans in the United States has ballooned since the first quarter of 2006. As of the fourth quarter of 2024, American students owed over 1.77 trillion U.S. dollars in student loans. In the first quarter of 2006, this figure stood at 480.9 billion U.S. dollars.

In 2022, students who graduated from Cornell University had an average student debt of ****** U.S. dollars, making them the most indebted class in the Ivy League. This is compared to Princeton University, where the average student debt was ****** U.S. dollars.

In the academic year of 2022/23, students who took out student loans had an average of 27,100 U.S. dollars worth of debt upon completion of their degree.

According to a survey conducted in 2022, ** percent of Americans said that they faced issues with understanding if they qualified for any student loan forgiveness programs in the United States. A further ** percent also had difficulties understanding the status of their application for student loan forgiveness if they applied.

According to a survey of U.S. adults in 2022, 37 percent of respondents who had taken out student loans said that taking on student loan debt was not worth it. In the third quarter of 2022, outstanding student loan debt totaled more than 1.76 trillion U.S. dollars.

In May 2022, Americans were surveyed on how much student loan debt they think should be forgiven. Across party lines, Democrats were much more likely than Republicans to indicate that at least some, if not all, student loan debt should be forgiven. Only 14 percent of Democrats felt that no debt should be forgiven, compared with 53 percent of Republicans. Independents were most likely to say that some student debt should be forgiven. In August 2022, the Biden administration announced that it would forgive up to 20,000 U.S. dollars for individuals earning less than 125,000 U.S. dollars a year.

A survey in August 2022, found that ** percent of Americans who identify as Democrats were strongly in favor of the Biden administrations decision to cancel up to 10,000 U.S. dollars in federal student loan debt for any individual with student loan debt who earns less than ******* U.S. dollars a year. Comparatively, ** percent of those identifying with the Republican party were strongly opposed to the measure.

In 2022, the student loan default rate in the United States was highest for Black borrowers, at **** percent. In comparison, Asian borrowers were least likely to default on their student loans.