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Student Loan Debt: A $1.3 Trillion Burden

2 min read

Student loan debt in the United States has soared in the last decade, reaching $1.3 trillion at the end of June 2017, according to the Pew Research Center. That’s more than two and a half times what student borrowers owed 10 years previously.

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Following are a few statistics about student loan debt, based on a Pew Research Center analysis of data from the Federal Reserve Board’s 2016 Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking:

♦ About 37 percent of adults under the age of 30 have student loan debt. “While age differences may partly reflect the fact that older adults have had more time to repay their loans, other research has found that young adults are also more likely now than in the past to take out loans to pay for their education,” the Pew Research Center said.

♦ The amount varies widely depending on the degree attained, with the median borrower owing $17,000 in 2016.

♦ Those with student loan debt are less optimistic about the value of their degree compared with those who don’t have student debt. “Only about half (51%) of those ages 25 to 39 with at least a bachelor’s degree and outstanding student loan debt say that the lifetime financial benefits of their degree outweigh the costs. By comparison, about seven-in-ten young college graduates without outstanding student loans (69%) say the lifetime benefits outweigh the costs,” the Pew center said.

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