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Accessible EducationHigher Education, Clearly Explained

Data & Trends · Updated

Student loan balances in the U.S.

What the national balance looks like, who holds it, and how payments behave.

Sample data — verify before publication. Figures on this page are illustrative and have not yet been checked against the primary source.

U.S. student loan debt, quarterly

Q1 '20–Q4 '23

Total outstanding (billions of dollars)
16201641.516631684.51706Q1 '20Q4 '20Q1 '21Q4 '21Q1 '22Q4 '22Q1 '23Q4 '23
Total outstanding U.S. student loan debt has been near $1.7 trillion since 2021, with modest quarterly variation, most recently around $1.66 trillion in late 2023. Source: New York Fed — Survey of Consumer Prices & Household Debt · as of 2025-09-18.

Methodology

Household debt figures come from the NY Fed Survey of Consumer Prices, which reports total outstanding balances. NCES and Federal Student Aid (FAFSA data) provide the borrower count and balance distribution by income band, which we use on this page to keep figures consistent with the household-debt release.

Source

New York Fed — Survey of Consumer Prices & Household Debt

https://www.newyorkfed.org/research/financial-stabilityAccessed .

Figures approximate quarterly release values; NY Fed publishes with a lag.

How we handle this kind of number — source selection, second review, and corrections — is set out in our sourcing standards and corrections policy.

Tuition and net price

What a degree actually costs after aid — and how to compare colleges on that basis.

NCES

College enrollment in the United States

How degree-granting enrollment has changed since 2010 — with the post-pandemic period spelled out.

U.S. Department of Education, NCES

Graduation rates

What completion actually looks like, by type of institution and degree level.

NCES