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FACT BRIEF

Is educational debt a significant source of debt for American households?

By EconoFact
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YES

As of the first quarter of 2021, student loan debt is the highest non-housing debt category for Americans, totaling $1.58 trillion. This category has remained one of the highest since the beginning of the 2010s, followed closely by auto loan debt. Between 2007 and 2020, student loan debt more than tripled to over $1.5 trillion. More than half of U.S. undergraduates rely on federal student loans to finance college, and student debt was the most significant source of non-mortgage debt for American households in 2020. Furthermore, while U.S. college attendance rates increased steadily between 1990 and 2020, the percentage of students completing a bachelor’s degree by age 25 did not. This is a major issue for borrowers since college dropouts are much more likely to default on their loans.

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Sources
EconoFact The Diploma Gap: Growing Costs of an Unfinished College Education
Brookings Increasing College Completion with a Federal Higher Education Matching Grant
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Household Debt and Credit Report
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EconoFact
EconoFact is a non-partisan publication designed to bring key facts and incisive analysis to the national debate on economic and social policies. Launched in January 2017, it is written by leading academic economists from across the country who belong to the EconoFact Network. It is published by the Edward R. Murrow Center for a Digital World at The Fletcher School at Tufts University.
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Fact briefs are short, credibly sourced summaries that offer “yes/no” answers in response to claims found online. They rely on publicly available, often primary source data and documents. Fact briefs are created by contributors to Gigafact —a nonprofit project looking to expand participation in fact-checking and protect the democratic process. See all fact briefs here.