25 startling facts about the state of student debt in America

As mentioned earlier, the total amount of student debt in America is $1.56 trillion dollars, a truly mind-blowing sum. If that money was freed up, America’s college grads could spend it on 5.3 million typical American homes, an iPhone for the entire populations of China and the U.K., or 21,000 Pink Star diamonds.

Of the approximately 250 million American adults, 45 million, or 18%, carry student debt. This burden is especially tough for younger Americans, who face mounting debt without a major increase in salary over time.

Many spend decades paying off their student loans, and some Americans continue to pay them off well into retirement. At this point, the value of their payments surely exceeds their original investments, even at the best interest rates offered by loan companies.

2012 was the first year in which the total amount of student loan debt in America superseded credit card debt, and the distance between the two has generally expanded over time. In the first quarter of 2012, the total amount of student debt was $904 billion.

College is getting more expensive, and no one's completely sure why. In 1988–1989, the cost of attending a four-year public college was $9,480 (adjusted for inflation in 2018 dollars), while in 2018–2019, this cost is $21,370.

For a short time in 2017, student loans accounted for more than half of all government financial assets, including checkable deposits and currency, mortgages, reserve assets, taxes receivable, etc. Now that number’s back below half, but student loans are still the largest single asset class by a huge amount.

For many, the investment of a college degree never pays off. The payments are too burdensome, the job market isn’t strong enough, and the debt keeps piling up: 9.2% of all student loans are in early delinquency (30+ days), while 8.9% are in late delinquency (90+ days).

Most colleges are public, funded by the state, or private nonprofits, funded by endowments, donations, and tuition dollars. There are also private, for-profit colleges, however, like the University of Phoenix and thousands of others across the country. Students at these for-profit colleges face the highest default rates on their loans by far, around 40% compared to about 20% for public four-year schools; only two-year community colleges come close at about 36%.

Except in rare cases, it’s impossible to discharge student loans by declaring bankruptcy. That is not the case with similar kinds of debt, like credit card and mortgage debt.

The cost of tuition is the second-most-stressful thing about college, according to a recent survey by TD Ameritrade. Getting good grades takes the cake, since 80% of students report stress over their report cards.

Student loans can be a source of lifelong stress for some, and many millennials are worried about paying off their loans for decades, which delays their plans for vacations, homeownership, having children—the typical markers of middle-class life in America.

According to the TD Ameritrade survey, 74% of Millennials report working a part-time job in college to make some money towards paying tuition and living expenses. That number is up a full 25% from just 2017.

Forty-one thousand public workers applied for debt forgiveness from the federal government in 2018, and just 206 applications were approved. That’s a success rate of about .5%.

Seventy-nine percent of parents surveyed by TD Ameritrade reported they were “somewhat” or “very” stressed about their child paying them back for college, showing the burden of student debt doesn’t just fall on the graduates themselves.

The average Gen Z student (aged 15-21) is paying for half of their college education, and 27% of students are paying for it completely on their own. Many report that they're trying to avoid the debt by taking online classes, introductory classes at a community college, or completing a two-year degree instead.

Bernie Sanders, who’s among the candidates for the Democratic nomination for the 2020 presidential race, has proposed a plan to cancel all $1.56 trillion in debt facing Americans and making public colleges and universities completely free. The program would be funded by a tax on buying and selling stocks, bonds, and derivatives, which specifically targets Wall Street speculation.

Despite the dire state of the student-loan crisis, a minority of American voters support making college free: 45% with 52% against, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. This is tough news for Bernie Sanders and the other Democratic candidates running on free public colleges.

However, there is a proposal with more popular support, according to that same Quinnipiac University poll: creating a debt forgiveness program for those with total income below $250,000, for up to $50,000 in college debt. This is like Senator Elizabeth Warren’s plan, which offers $50,000 in forgiveness for those with income below $100,000, and less and less forgiveness until those with incomes of $250,000 or higher.

Eighty-five percent of African-Americans with Bachelor’s degrees carry student loan debt, compared to 69% of white students with the same degree, and also owe around $4,000 more on average. This reflects the racial wealth gap in the country; the median average white family has around $154,000 more in net wealth than the median African-American family.

African-American and Hispanic debtors are more likely to be behind on their payments than white debtors, and also less likely to have paid them off. Twenty percent of African-American non-Hispanic graduates are behind on their loans compared to 6% of white non-Hispanic graduates.

The delinquency rate for student loans is around six times as high as the same rate for mortgages, according to Credit.com. It’s also far greater than auto and credit card debt, showing the increasing unsustainability of debt levels for graduates with debt.

Those who have dropped out of an associate’s or bachelor’s program have higher delinquency rates than those who received their degree. If a student drops out because of extenuating personal circumstances, the debt load is another crushing blow to deal with.

As graduates deal with mounting debt, plans for homeownership and other major life goals are put off. That’s why around 45% of 23-to-25-year-olds live with their parents instead of moving out, up from around 33% in 2004.

According to a survey by Pew Research, “...about half (51%) of those ages 25 to 39 with at least a bachelor’s degree and outstanding student loan debt say that the lifetime financial benefits of their degree outweigh the costs.” It’s no wonder that free college polls much better with young folks than with their grandparents.

Back in March, the Trump administration proposed changes to the Higher Education Act being reauthorized by Congress. Among those changes: Consolidating repayment options and capping the amount that students can borrow, dividing experts on whether the change will help the student debt crisis.