Maryland Student Loan Debt and Financial Aid Statistics

Federal student loan debt statistics in Maryland

Maryland has the 13th highest student loan debt in the country
Residents of Maryland owe a total of $35.9 billion
Maryland has the 2nd highest average student loan debt in the country at $42,861
This can in part be attributed to Maryland’s proximity to Washington DC and the qualified number of lawyers who live in Maryland and commute to DC
837,600 Maryland residents have student loan debt – the 17th most of any state in the country
This is 13.59% of Maryland’s population
Just over half of Maryland residents with student loan debt are under the age of 35

The average Maryland resident owes $42,861
This is $5,074 above the national average and the 2nd highest amount of any state in the country
In part, this is due to the number of government employees who have law degrees and Maryland’s close proximity to Washington DC
This is borne out by the fact that 3.20% of borrowers owe more than $200,000 – the 2nd most of any state or territory after Washington DC
At the other end of the scale, Maryland has the 3rd lowest percentage of borrowers that owe less than $5,000 at 14.00%
20.70% of borrowers owe between $20,000 and $40,000

29.20% of Maryland undergraduate students take student loans
At two-year colleges, this number is 13.40%
On average, they are awarded $5,752 per year on average
At four-year colleges, they are awarded $6,974 per year on average
38.40% of undergraduates at 4-year colleges take student loans to pay for college

Maryland spends $108.2 on student financial aid per year
That makes Maryland the state with the 30th-largest budget for financial aid
This equates to $548 per undergraduate student or 0.48% of Maryland’s gross state product (GSP)
Of the $108.2 million, $102.1 million is given out to students in the form of grants that do not need to be repaid
The rest ($6.1 million) is distributed in the form of loans that may or may not need to be repaid by students at some point in the future