A Snapshot of Federal Student Loan Debt
David P. Smole and Rita R. Zota
December 2, 2022
After years of increasing, growth in counts of federal student loan borrowers, average annual amounts borrowed, and average cumulative debt owed appears to be moderating somewhat. Overall, though, more student loan dollars continue to be disbursed than are repaid, resulting in an expanding federal student loan portfolio. Nearly 43 million individuals—one in six adult Americans—have federal student loan debt, and the federal student loan portfolio now exceeds $1.6 trillion.
Annual Borrowing Title IV of the Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA)
authorizes the primary federal student loan programs. U.S. Department of Education (ED) data show that from academic year (AY) 1995-1996 to AY2011-2012, average annual amounts of Title IV loans undergraduate students borrowed increased from $3,800 to $6,500 (71%), while counts of undergraduate borrowers increased from 4.1 million to nearly 9.3 million (124%). (See Figure 1.) From AY2011-2012 to AY2017-2018, average amounts annually borrowed increased to $6,700 (3%), while counts of undergraduate borrowers decreased to 6.4 million (-31%).
