11 Facts About College Debt

As of Oct. 2012, the average student loan debt for the class of 2011 was $26,600.
Americans owe more in student loan debt than credit card debt.
About two-thirds of all college students graduate with student loans.
Private lenders control approximately 15 percent of the over $1 trillion in outstanding student loan debt held nationwide.
Of the 37 million borrowers who have outstanding student loan balances, 14 percent or 5.4 million borrowers, have at least one student loan account that isn’t paid on time.
The majority of borrowers still paying back their loans are in their 30s or older.
2 out of 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.
About 65 percent of high-debt student loan borrowers were surprised or misunderstood aspects of their loans or the borrowing process.
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.
There is approximately $864 billion in outstanding federal student loan debt, while the remaining $150 billion is in private loans.
Student loans are the most common form of increasing debt among 18- to 24-year-olds.

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