Virginia Student Loan Debt and Financial Aid Statistics

Federal student loan debt statistics in Virginia

Virginia residents owe a total of $42.5 billion in student loan debts
This is the 12th largest total debt of all 50 states plus Washington DC and Puerto Rico
And the average debt per borrower of $39,165 is the 4th largest average student debt per borrower in the country – $1,378 above the national average
A total of 1 million people in Virginia hold student debt making Virginia the state with the 12th highest number of borrowers in the country.
This is only 12.53% of the population of Virginia – making Virginia the state with the 31st most student loan borrowers per capita.
Of these borrowers, 53.40% are under the age of 35 – the 4th highest in the country.

The average student loan debt for borrowers who are Virginia residents is $39,165
This makes Virginia the state with the 4th-largest average student loan debt
The average student debt in Virginia is $1,378 above the national average of $37,721
Within this average, the amount owed by Virginia residents varies greatly:
- 14.00% of borrowers owe less than $5k
- 22.80% of borrowers owe between $20k and $40k
- 2.40% of borrowers owe more than $200k
With 2.40% of borrowers owing over $200k, it makes Virginia the state with the 10th highest proportion of people owing more than $200k.

35.60% of Virginia undergraduate students take out federal student loans – this is the 31st highest in the country
For those at 2-year colleges, 11.60% of students chose to take student loans – that’s 44th in the country
They were approved to get $5,582 per year on average
This is the 23rd most per student at 2-year colleges of any state
More students at 4-year schools take out student loans – 49.70% receive student loans
This is 13th most out of the 50 states and DC.
These students are awarded $7,161 per year on average – ranking 9th in the country.

Virginia is the state that spends the 7th most state funds on financial aid for students
In total, Virginia spends $637 million on state-level financial aid programs per year
This works out at around 0.33% of the gross state product (GSP)
While Virginia has the nation’s 7th largest budget for student financial aid, it only ranks 40th as a percentage of GSP
This works out at around $2,038 per undergraduate student in the state – the 5th most of any state in the country
Just over $493.8 million is distributed to students in the form of grants meaning that none of this amount is repaid.
The remaining $350.2 million is distributed between some other programs – some of which may be due to be repaid.