This article first appeared in the St. Louis Beacon, Aug. 19, 2013 - These facts about student loan debt are from "Inside the Vault,’’ a newsletter published by the St. Louis Federal Reserve. You can read it in its dismal entirety here.
- Student loan debt has doubled since 2007 -- to $1 trillion. It is now second only to mortgage debt for consumers. Americans owe more for college than they do for auto loans ($780 billion) or credit cards ($680 billion).
- From 2005 to 2012, the number of borrowers jumped from 24.3 million to 37.5 million, and average debt per borrower climbed from $16,000 to $25,000. On the other hand, the median debt per borrower in 2012 was lower than the average -- about $14,000 -- and nearly 40 percent of borrowers owed less than $10,000. The Fed’s conclusion: Average debt is skewed by about 3.6 percent of borrowers in expensive degree programs, such as medicine and law, who have loans of more than $100,000.
- The delinquency rate for student loans has risen since the financial crisis in 2008, while delinquency rates for other types of loans have fallen or remained the same. Nearly 12 percent of student loan balances were delinquent for 90 days or more in the last quarter of 2012. Delinquent student loans now outnumber delinquent credit cards.
- The report includes a color-coded map that breaks down average student loan debt by state. In Missouri, student debt falls in the orange zone: $22,000 to $25,000. Illinois is in the red zone: $25,000 or more.
- The bottom line? Student loan debt will likely drag down the economy in the future -- and U.S. taxpayers could be on the hook for defaults because the majority of student loans are backed by the federal government.
