11 Facts About College Debt

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1. As of Oct. 2012, the average student loan debt for the class of 2011 was $26,600.^[Project on Student Debt. "Student Debt and the Class of 2011." Insitutie for College Access and Success. Accessed April 28, 2014.]
2. Americans owe more in student loan debt than credit card debt.^[Federal Reserve Bank of New York. "Student Loan Debt by Age Group." Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Accessed February 11, 2015.]
3. In 2012, the percentage of students who graduated with student loan debt from four-year colleges reached 71%.^[The Institute for College Access & Success. "Quick Facts about Student Debt."The Institute for College Access & Success. Accessed February 17, 2015. .]
4. Private lenders control approximately 15% of the over $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt held nationwide.^[Consumer Financial Protection Bureau . "Private Student Loans." USA.gov. http://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/567/should-i-choose-federal-student-loans-or-private-student-loans.html (Accessed February 10, 2014).]
5. Of the 37 million borrowers who have outstanding student loan balances, 14% or 5.4 million borrowers, have at least one student loan account that isn’t paid on time.^[Lorin, Janet. "Student Loan Delinquency Reached $85 Billion in Third Quarter." Bloomberg Business. Accessed February 17, 2015. .]
6. The majority of borrowers who are still paying back their loans are in their 30s or older.^[Nelson, Libby A. "Aging Student Debtors." Inside HigherEd. Accessed February 17, 2015. .]
7. 2 in 5 student loan borrowers are delinquent (when you don’t make loan payments when they’re due) at some point in the first five years of entering repayment.^[Institute for Higher Education Policy. "Just How many Student Loan Borrowers are Delinquent?." Institute for Higher Education Policy. Accessed February 17, 2015. .]
8. About 65% of high-debt student loan borrowers were surprised or misunderstood aspects of their loans or the borrowing process.^[NASFAA. "Report Suggests More Counseling Needed for High-Debt Borrowers." National Association of Student Financial Associations. Accessed February 17, 2015. .]
9. There is now over $8 billion in defaulted private loans (when you haven’t made a payment on your loan in 9 months and have not made arrangements with your lender to defer payments) as of 2012.^[Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. "Annual Report of the CFPB Student Loan." Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Accessed February 17, 2015. .]
10. There is approximately $864 billion in outstanding federal student loan debt, while the remaining $150 billion is in private loans.^[Day, Richard. "Student Loan Debt." Kentucky School News and Commentary. Accessed February 17, 2015. .]
11. Student loans are the most common form of increasing debt among 18- to 24-year-olds.^[Smith, Vanessa. "Costs of College Exist Long after Graduation." The Marlin Chronicle. Accessed February 17, 2015. http://marlinchronicle.vwc.edu/?p=2640]