A total of 1.822 million people in Pennsylvania hold student debt making Pennsylvania the state with the fifth-highest number of borrowers in the country.
However, this is only 14.06% of the population of Pennsylvania – placing Pennsylvania in 7th position when it comes to the percentage of student loan borrowers per capita — just behind Mississippi, Louisiana and South Carolina.
Of these borrowers, 58.20% are under the age of 35 – this is the 7th most borrowers under the age of 50 in all the states.
How much student loan debt does the average Pennsylvania resident have?
This makes Pennsylvania the state with the 24th-largest average student loan debt
The average student debt in Pennsylvania is 6.36% less than the national average of $37,787 – by $2,402
Within this average, the amount owed by Pennsylvanians varies greatly:
14.90% of borrowers owe less than $5k
24.00% of borrowers owe between $20k and $40k
2.00% of borrowers owe more than $200k
Pennsylvania has the 4th highest percentage of borrowers that owe between $20,000 and $40,000 in student loans
How much do Pennsylvania residents borrow each year?
52.50% of Pennsylvania undergraduate students take out federal student loans
This is the 2nd highest percentage of undergraduates taking loans of any state in the country
For those at 2-year colleges, only 36.30% of students chose to take student loans – that’s 9th highest in the country
They were approved to get $5,982 per year on average
This is the 15th most per student at 2-year colleges of any state
Even more students at 4-year schools take out student loans – 58% receive student loans
This is 2nd most out of the 50 states and DC.
These students are awarded $6,835 per year on average – ranking 23rd in the country.
State-level financial aid for students in Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania is the state that spends the 10th most state funds on financial aid for students
In total, Pennsylvania spends $416.2 million on state-level financial aid programs per year
This works out at around 0.22% of the gross state product (GSP)
While Pennsylvania has the nation’s 10th largest budget for student financial aid, it only ranks 36th as a percentage of GSP
This works out at around $1,010 per undergraduate student in the state – the 18th most of any state in the country
Just over $389.5 million is distributed to students in the form of grants meaning that none of this amount is repaid.
The remaining $26.7 million is distributed between some other programs – some of which may be due to be repaid.
