Black students take out the most student loan debt for a bachelor's degree, followed by white students. Black bachelor's degree holders have an average of $52,000 in student debt. Eighty-six percent of Black students take out student loans to pay for college, compared to 68 percent of white students.
In 2021, Americans' median student loan debt was between $20,000-$25,000. However, average student loan debt varies dramatically by race. Black adults in particular tend to bear the highest burdens across indicators, from student loan borrowing rates to default rates to average debt.
Black and African American student borrowers are the most likely to struggle financially due to student loan debt making monthly payments of $250. Asian college graduates are the fastest to repay their loan debt and the most likely to earn a salary that exceeds their student loan debt balance.
Federal Student Loans by Age
Unsurprisingly, younger people hold the majority of student loan debt. Borrowers between the ages of 25 and 34 carry about $500 billion in federal student loans—the majority of people in this age group owe between $10,000 and $40,000.
Approximately three-quarters of Black- and White-headed families have debt, but the median debt-to-asset ratio is 50% higher among Black than White families (Copeland, 2020), with Black borrowers less likely to fully repay loans (Brevoort et al., 2021).
On average, Black graduates owe 6 percent more than they have borrowed, while White graduates owe 10 percent less than they have borrowed. On average, Black graduates pay off their undergraduate debt at a slower rate than White graduates.
Foreign holders of United States treasury debt
Of the total 7.6 trillion held by foreign countries, Japan and Mainland China held the greatest portions, with China holding 868.9 billion U.S. dollars in U.S. securities. Other foreign holders included oil exporting countries and Caribbean banking centers.
Black families borrow student loans at higher rates than other races and owe more. While 30.2% of Black families (median of $30,000) hold student loan debt, only 20.0% of white (median of $23,000) and 14.3% of Hispanic families (median of $17,600) have this type of debt.
If those monthly payments look low compared to what most borrowers pay, it's because most borrowers carry a lot more than $20,000 in student loan debt. As of March 2023, the average federal student loan debt in the United States was about $37,720, according to a BestColleges analysis of Education Department data.
The borrowers who struggle the most with their student loans are more likely to come from low-income backgrounds or to have never completed a degree. Those are some of the takeaways from data released this month by the Department of Education on its portfolio of defaulted student loans.
On average, men have more debt than women across all categories, except for student loans. While there isn't much data yet, early studies have shown that nonbinary students undergo more financial strain than their cisgender peers, and are more likely to have student loan debt.
Enrollment Patterns. College-going patterns exacerbate high debt levels for African American students. As noted above, African Americans are more likely than others to enroll in for-profit institutions, where tuition prices are higher than at public colleges and universities.
The average student loan debt amount is slightly over $30,000. However, many borrowers owe $50,000 or more in student loan debt. This isn't impossible to overcome using the right repayment methods.
For example, if you take out a $70,000 student loan and pay it back in 10 years at an APR of 5%, your monthly payment will be $742. But if you pay off a $70,000 student loan in one year at a 14% APR, your monthly payment will be $6,285.
Non-Hispanic Black Americans reported the lowest average credit card debt amount in 2020, $3,940. The average credit card debt reported for Hispanic Americans was $5,510. Non-Hispanic white Americans reported the highest debt amount, $6,940.
More than four in ten students at public four-year universities complete their degree with zero debt. Nearly eight in ten students graduate with less than $30,000 in debt. Among those who do borrow, the average debt at graduation is $27,400 — or $6,850 for each year of a four-year degree at a public university.
Who owns the most U.S. debt? Around 70 percent of U.S. debt is held by domestic financial actors and institutions in the United States. U.S. Treasuries represent a convenient, liquid, low-risk store of value.
First, the debt held by the public stands at more than $24.64 trillion. This represents debt securities, like Treasury bonds and notes, bought by banks, insurance companies, state and local governments, foreign governments and private investors.
Three of the major arguments in favor of broad student debt cancellation are: Student loan debt slows new business growth and limits consumer spending. Broad student loan debt forgiveness may help boost the national economy by making it more affordable for borrowers to participate in it.
According to the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), in 2021, minority students made up 38% of the undergraduate student population in the United States, while they made up 33% of the population aged 18-24 years old.
Payments under the standard repayment plan
Standard repayment divides the amount you owe into 120 level payments so you pay the same amount each month for 10 years. Under this plan, payments can't be less than $50.
What is considered a lot of student loan debt? A lot of student loan debt is more than you can afford to repay after graduation. For many this means having more than $70,000 – $100,000 of total student debt.
Only a small percentage—about 6% of borrowers—owe $100,000 or more. Nationally, the average student loan balance per borrower is $39,032, so if you have $100,000 in student loan debt, you have about 2.5 times the national average balance. But your loan principal is just one part of the problem.