Alabama Student Loan Debt and Financial Aid Statistics

Federal student loan debt statistics in Alabama

Alabama has the 23rd largest student loan debt of any state in the country
In total, the residents of Alabama owe $23.5 billion
This works out to an average of $37,137 per borrower
This is the 12th largest average amount owed per borrower of any state in the country
In total, there are 632,800 people in the state of Alabama with student loan debt
12.56% of the population of Alabama have student loan debt – this is the 30th highest percentage of any state in the USA
50.30% of the borrowers are under the age of 35 – this is the 12th lowest percentage in the country under the age of 35

The average Alabama borrower owes $37,137
This is the 12th-largest average amount owed per borrower in the country
It is also $650 below the national average of $37,787
16.00% of borrowers in Alabama owe less than $5,000
20.90% owe between $20,000 and $40,000
0.21% of borrowers owe more than $200,000
This is a smaller percentage than any state in the country plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico

36.70% of Alabama undergraduate students take out student loans
This is the 26th highest in the country
At 2-year colleges, this number sits at 12.90% – the 41st highest
At 4-year colleges, this jumps to 47.30%
Students at 2-year colleges are awarded $5,162 per year on average in the form of loans to cover tuition fees and other living expenses
This is 35th in the country for the amount awarded to students at 2-year colleges
At 4-year colleges in Alabama, students are awarded $7,174 on average
This is the 7th highest in the country behind Mississippi, Arizona, Connecticut, New Jersey, West Virginia, and Tennessee

Alabama spends $80.3 million per year of state funds on student financial aid
This is the 32nd-largest budget for student financial aid in the country
0.72% of the Gross State Product (GSP) is spent on student financial aid
This is the 6th highest GSP percentage spend on student financial aid of any state in the country
This amount works out to $453 per undergraduate student
Of this, $72.4 million is distributed in the form of needs-based grants – this is money that does not need to be repaid by the students in the future
The remaining $7.9 million is paid out through other programs – some of which may be liable for repayment in the future