Prior to the CARE Act, the average monthly student loan repayment was $460
Federal guidelines suggest that 10% – 36% of a borrower’s salary should go towards repaying student loans
There are 2.5 million 60+ years old Americans that are still making student loan payments
On average, it takes borrowers 20 years to repay their student loan in full
As much as two-thirds of what a borrower repays can be interest that has accrued on the original loan
43% of graduates thought they would take more than 15 years to pay off their student loans
In reality, only 8% of people that pay off their student loans take more than 15 years to do so
Student loan repayment status statistics
6.4 million student loan borrowers are currently in school and owe a total of $118 billion in student loan debt to the federal government
A further 1.6 million borrowers are in the 6-month grace period (usually after graduation) before repayments start
They owe a total of $41 billion – an average of $25,625 each
Only 500 thousand student loan borrowers are currently re-paying their loan under standard circumstances due to the CARE Act that provides relief from COVID-19
These borrowers owe a combined $16 billion
A combined 27.1 million borrowers are in deferment and forbearance owing more than $1 trillion
Deferment and forbearance mean that borrowers do not have to make monthly repayments at the moment
$112 billion worth of student loan debt is in default – meaning that the borrowers have missed repayment for an extended period of time
Status
Amount owed
Number of borrowers
In-school
$118 billion
6.4 million
Grace period
$41 billion
1.6 million
Repayment
$16 billion
0.5 million
Deferment
$113 billion
3.1 million
Forbearance
$968 billion
24 million
Default
$112 billion
5.1 million
Student loan repayment plan statistics
10.5 million people are on the standard student loan repayment plan owing $202 billion
3.3 million people are on REPAYE student loan repayment plan owing a combined $200 billion
There are a number of ways that student loan borrowers can choose to repay their student loans. The main repayment plans are:
Standard – standard plan to pay off student loans over 10 years that is available to all borrowers. The borrower will usually pay less in total but will generally pay a higher monthly payment than other plans
Graduated – This plan begins with lower repayments and the payments increase every two years with the goal of paying off the total loan within 10 years. The idea behind this loan is that a borrower will earn more as their career progresses and can afford higher monthly payments
Income-contingent (ICR) – This plan is for people with Direct loans. With this plan, if the loan is not paid off within 25 years, any outstanding debt is forgiven. Generally, with this plan, 20% of a borrower’s income goes to pay off student loans. This amount is recalculated each year to determine the new payment for the following year.
Income-based (IBR) – IBR is for people who have a low income and high debt. The payments will be 10 – 15% of the borrower’s income and are re-calculated each year. Any outstanding loan balance is forgiven after 20 – 25 years of repayments.
Pay As You Earn (PAYE) – This is also for people with a high level of debt to income. Generally, payments will be 10% of a borrower’s income but will never be higher than the monthly payments that would be paid on the standard repayment schedule.
Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE) – Direct loan borrowers can take this plan where 10% of their salary is used to pay off their student loans. Loans are forgiven after 20 or 25 years depending if the borrower has an undergraduate or graduate loan.
Repayment plan
Loan amount
Number of borrowers
Standard
$202 billion
10.5 million
Graduated
$91 billion
3.1 million
Income-contingent (ICR)
$37 billion
0.8 million
Income-based (IBR)
$173 billion
2.8 million
Pay As You Earn (PAYE)
$112 billion
1.5 million
Revised Pay As You Earn (REPAYE)
$200 billion
3.3 million
Percentage of late student loan repayments
In 2021, 3.16% of borrowers were 30+ days behind with their student loan repayments
This was down significantly from 6.75% in 2013
The number of people that were more than 90 days late reduced from 3.28% in 2013 to less than 1% in 2021
Year
30-90 days late
90+ days late
Total % late
2013
3.47%
3.28%
6.75%
2014
3.24%
2.60%
5.84%
2015
2.83%
2.17%
5.00%
2016
2.75%
2.08%
4.83%
2017
2.63%
1.56%
4.19%
2018
2.63%
1.67%
4.30%
2019
2.57%
1.32%
3.89%
2020
2.08%
0.87%
2.95%
2021
2.22%
0.94%
3.16%
Student loan monthly repayment statistics
Average monthly student loan repayment over the years
Year
Amount
2007
$367
2008
$424
2009
$413
2010
$399
2011
$299
2012
$225
2013
$230
2014
$259
2015
$302
2016
$280
2017
$247
2018
$282
2019
$318
2020
$460
Average monthly student loan repayment by degree type
Student with a professional degree pay almost 5 times as much per month in student loan repayments than those with associate degrees
Generally, the higher the educational attainment, the higher the salary and the higher the monthly repayments
Degree type
Avg. monthly repayment
Associate’s Degree
$333
Bachelor’s Degree
$448
Master’s Degree
$695
Doctorate
$1,210
Professional Degree
$1,537
Estimated time to pay off student loans
In general, borrowers have a much more pessimistic outlook on how long it will take them to repay their loans versus the reality. However, one thing to note in this data is the estimates come from people who have not repaid their loans whereas the time in reality comes from people who have paid off their student loans.
This fact does bias the data somewhat but the data is interesting nonetheless.
4x times as many people pay off their student loans within 1 year of graduating than anticipated they would be able to
Almost 3x as many borrowers paid off their student loans in 1 – 5 years than anticipated
43% of graduates thought they would take more than 15 years to pay off their student loans
In reality, only 8% of people that pay off their student loans take more than 15 years to do so
