Student loan debt is not one number. Here are the 2026 figures to cite.
The latest FSA federal portfolio tables run through March 31, 2026; G.19 and NY Fed household-credit data run through June 30, 2026. Use $1.724T for the federal portfolio and keep the broader series separate.
Download the reviewed dataset
Latest links move only after source review. The 2026 edition URLs remain available, and the 2026 Q2 archive is immutable.
Three totals, three statistical universes
These series answer different questions. They are aligned for comparison, never stacked or added.
Federal portfolio
$1.724T in 2026 Q2
Federal student loans administered or held through federal programs
Federal Reserve G.19
$1.858T in 2026 Q2
Broad federal and private student-loan memo series, including accrued interest and defaults
NY Fed household credit
$1.651T in 2026 Q2
Student-loan balances appearing in the NY Fed Consumer Credit Panel
A small share of borrowers holds a large share of federal debt
Borrower counts and dollars tell opposite sides of the distribution. Compare both before describing who holds federal student debt.
| Group | Borrowers | Share of borrowers | Balance | Share of dollars |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borrowers owing less than $20,000 | 23,300,000 | 52.0% | $203.9B | 12.0% |
| Borrowers owing $100,000 or more | 3,800,000 | 8.5% | $710.1B | 41.9% |
Explore federal student loan debt by state
Choose a metric or state. The map, detail, URL, and complete accessible table stay synchronized.
View and sort the complete jurisdiction table
| Jurisdiction | Balance | Borrowers | Aggregate ratio |
|---|---|---|---|
| $156.7B | 3.9M | $39,980 | |
| $138.3B | 3.9M | $35,014 | |
| $113.1B | 2.7M | $41,162 | |
| $99.9B | 2.5M | $40,666 | |
| $74.6B | 1.7M | $43,813 | |
| $69.6B | 1.9M | $37,542 | |
| $65.3B | 1.6M | $40,774 | |
| $64.3B | 1.8M | $36,311 | |
| $55.8B | 1.4M | $40,455 | |
| $53.2B | 1.4M | $38,626 | |
| $48.4B | 1.2M | $39,174 | |
| $45.5B | 1.1M | $41,916 | |
| $38.4B | 842.3K | $45,589 | |
| $34.6B | 894.9K | $38,664 | |
| $34.0B | 916.1K | $37,114 | |
| $33.4B | 900.6K | $37,086 | |
| $31.4B | 782.3K | $40,138 | |
| $31.0B | 898.5K | $34,502 | |
| $30.6B | 826.5K | $37,024 | |
| $29.7B | 764.6K | $38,844 | |
| $29.6B | 776.1K | $38,139 | |
| $27.5B | 772.6K | $35,594 | |
| $26.0B | 664K | $39,157 | |
| $25.1B | 694K | $36,167 | |
| $24.0B | 709.1K | $33,846 | |
| $21.6B | 615.6K | $35,088 | |
| $20.8B | 526.6K | $39,499 | |
| $19.8B | 515.4K | $38,417 | |
| $17.8B | 456.3K | $39,009 | |
| $17.1B | 510.7K | $33,483 | |
| $14.5B | 408.4K | $35,504 | |
| $13.5B | 423.4K | $31,885 | |
| $13.2B | 367.9K | $35,879 | |
| $13.1B | 379.3K | $34,537 | |
| $11.7B | 336.9K | $34,728 | |
| $11.1B | 313.3K | $35,429 | |
| $8.2B | 243.5K | $33,676 | |
| $8.0B | 226K | $35,398 | |
| $7.7B | 228.3K | $33,728 | |
| $7.5B | 216.5K | $34,642 | |
| $6.8B | 187.7K | $36,228 | |
| $6.7B | 186.6K | $35,906 | |
| $6.4B | 114.6K | $55,846 | |
| $5.6B | 137.8K | $40,639 | |
| $5.1B | 149.7K | $34,068 | |
| $4.9B | 121K | $40,496 | |
| $4.5B | 126.4K | $35,601 | |
| $3.7B | 116.7K | $31,705 | |
| $2.9B | 74.8K | $38,770 | |
| $2.7B | 88.4K | $30,543 | |
| $2.4B | 64.5K | $37,209 | |
| $1.8B | 54.8K | $32,847 | |
| Other | $5.0B | 96.5K | Not mapped |
| Not Reported | $52.2B | 2M | Not mapped |
Compare up to three jurisdictions
Choose states or Puerto Rico. The aggregate ratio is balance divided by borrowers, not an individual borrower’s average debt.
There is no single student-loan-debt number.
The current headline depends on the series being cited. The Federal Reserve Board, Federal Student Aid, and the New York Fed measure overlapping but different universes.
| Use this when | Best number | Period | Source | Citation guardrail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Your sentence is about the federal student-loan portfolio. | $1.724T; 42.6M unduplicated recipients | FY2026 Q2, quarter ended Mar. 31, 2026 | Federal Student Aid Data Center portfolio summary | FSA reports 42.6M unduplicated recipients, a student-benefited count that is not always the same as unique borrowers. |
| Your sentence needs the broad Federal Reserve G.19 student-loan series. | $1.858T | 2026 Q2 / June 2026 | Federal Reserve G.19 consumer credit release | Broader Federal Reserve series with a different universe than FSA's federal portfolio; do not add it to the FSA number. |
| Your sentence compares student debt with other household debt. | $1.651T | 2026 Q2 | Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, 2026 Q2 | Do not use as the federal total; this is student debt held by households in NY Fed household-debt data. |
| Your sentence is only about private student loans. | $140.4B; 7.66% of total | 2025 Q3 | Private Student Loan Semi-Annual Report, Q3 2025 | Trade/industry source, not government data. |
| Your sentence is about annual federal loan originations, not outstanding debt. | $88.7B | 2024-25 academic year | Trends in Student Aid 2025 | Annual borrowing/aid-flow data, not outstanding debt. |
Federal student loans make up the core of the market.
FSA's federal portfolio table is the cleanest administrative source for Direct Loans, FFEL, Perkins, and total federal recipients.
| Loan type | Balance / recipients | Period | Source | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stafford combined | $943.2B; 35.1M unique recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by loan type | Recipient counts may duplicate across loan types. |
| Consolidation | $529.7B; 9.1M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by loan type | Recipient counts may duplicate across loan types. |
| Grad PLUS | $130.3B; 1.9M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by loan type | Implied average roughly $68,579 per recipient. |
| Parent PLUS | $117.9B; 3.5M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by loan type | Parent is borrower; child is recipient. |
| Perkins | $2.7B; 0.8M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by loan type | Recipient counts may duplicate across loan types. |
Recipient counts may duplicate across loan types.
Repayment, forbearance, and default are all large buckets.
The status tables show how much debt is actively being repaid versus paused, delinquent, or already in default.
| Status | Balance / recipients | Period | Source | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Repayment | $632.8B; 17.2M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by loan status | Federally managed means Direct plus ED-held FFEL. |
| Forbearance | $484.6B; 8.4M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by loan status | Major post-pause status bucket. |
| Cumulative default | $220.3B; 9.0M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by loan status | Default defined in FSA notes as more than 360 days delinquent. |
| 31+ delinquent or moving to default collections | $98.0B; 3.54M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Direct Loan portfolio by delinquency status | Only borrowers in repayment status; excludes deferment, forbearance, in-school, grace, already-defaulted loans. |
FSA delinquency data covers repayment-status loans and excludes deferment, forbearance, in-school, grace, and already-defaulted loans.
Income-driven repayment remains a major share of Direct Loans.
Direct Loan IDR/SAVE categories totaled hundreds of billions of dollars, while the latest zero-payment table is lagged relative to the FY2026 Q2 portfolio tables.
| Plan category | Balance / recipients | Period | Source | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SAVE | $383.0B; 6.99M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Direct Loan portfolio by repayment plan | Plan data includes Direct Loan borrowers in repayment, deferment, and forbearance. |
| Income-Based | $197.0B; 2.92M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Direct Loan portfolio by repayment plan | Plan data includes Direct Loan borrowers in repayment, deferment, and forbearance. |
| Pay As You Earn | $127.9B; 1.53M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Direct Loan portfolio by repayment plan | Plan data includes Direct Loan borrowers in repayment, deferment, and forbearance. |
| Income-Contingent | $55.9B; 1.30M recipients | FY2026 Q2 | Direct Loan portfolio by repayment plan | Plan data includes Direct Loan borrowers in repayment, deferment, and forbearance. |
The IDR/SAVE total uses the Direct Loan sheet categories ICR, IBR, PAYE, and SAVE.
Debt is concentrated by age and balance size.
The largest balance bucket is borrowers ages 35 to 49, and a relatively small group with balances of $100,000 or more holds a large share of federal dollars.
| Group | Balance / borrowers | Period | Source | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Borrowers under $20K | 23.3M borrowers; $203.9B | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by debt size | 52.0% of borrowers but 12.0% of dollars. |
| Borrowers at $100K+ | 3.8M borrowers; $710.1B | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by debt size | 8.5% of borrowers but 41.9% of dollars. |
| Borrowers at $200K+ | 1.2M borrowers; $355.8B | FY2026 Q2 | Federal student loan portfolio by debt size | 2.7% of borrowers but 21.0% of dollars. |
California and Texas lead by federal student-loan balance.
FSA location data is based on borrower location reported by servicers, so it is useful for state-level comparisons but not metro-level rankings without more work.
| State | Balance / borrowers | Period | Source | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | $156.7B; 3.92M borrowers | Data as of Mar. 31, 2026 | Federal student loan portfolio by borrower location | Borrower location reported by servicer. |
| Texas | $138.3B; 3.95M borrowers | Data as of Mar. 31, 2026 | Federal student loan portfolio by borrower location | Texas has slightly more borrowers than California but lower total balance. |
| Florida | $113.1B; 2.75M borrowers | Data as of Mar. 31, 2026 | Federal student loan portfolio by borrower location | Borrower location reported by servicer. |
| New York | $99.9B; 2.46M borrowers | Data as of Mar. 31, 2026 | Federal student loan portfolio by borrower location | Borrower location reported by servicer. |
| Georgia | $74.6B; 1.70M borrowers | Data as of Mar. 31, 2026 | Federal student loan portfolio by borrower location | Borrower location reported by servicer. |
Private-loan and annual-origination figures answer different questions.
Private student-loan estimates are not the same as federal administrative data, and annual borrowing numbers are flow data rather than outstanding debt.
| Measure | Value | Period | Source | Citation guardrail |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Private student loans outstanding | $140.4B; 7.66% of total | 2025 Q3 | Private Student Loan Semi-Annual Report, Q3 2025 | Trade/industry source, not government data. |
| Private originations | $4.5B first quarter AY2025-26; $10.8B AY2024-25 total | 2025 Q3 / AY2024-25 | Private Student Loan Semi-Annual Report, Q3 2025 | Origination/flow data, not outstanding balances. |
| Federal loan originations | $88.7B | 2024-25 academic year | Trends in Student Aid 2025 | Annual borrowing/aid-flow data, not outstanding debt. |
| Nonfederal loan originations | $13.9B | 2024-25 academic year | Trends in Student Aid 2025 | Annual borrowing/aid-flow data, not outstanding debt. |
Payment difficulty and credit effects remain part of the story.
Survey and household-debt sources are separate from portfolio totals, but they help explain how repayment status changes show up for borrowers.
| Measure | Value | Period | Source | Caveat |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Adults with outstanding student loans | 16% | 2025 survey | Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025 | Among adults who attended at least some college, 21% had outstanding loans. |
| Borrowers not required to make payments | 45% | 2025 survey | Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025 | Survey response at time of survey. |
| Recent payment difficulty | 41% of those required to pay; 23% of adults with student-loan debt | 2025 survey | Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025 | Includes payment difficulty in past 12 months. |
| Newly defaulted federal student-loan borrowers | 3.6M | 2025 Q4 / 2026 Q1 | Federal student loan defaults return after the pandemic pause | Average score fell 91 points, from 567 to 476. |
Methodology and citation notes
This page separates source-of-record datasets instead of blending them into one headline. FSA administrative tables, the Federal Reserve G.19 release, and the NY Fed household-debt series use different universes and should be cited for different questions.
The CSV and JSON files are generated from the same local data module that renders this page. They include the current 2026 figures plus clearly labeled context rows; source-only rows retained for audit traceability are excluded from the public page sections and downloads.
Rows marked contextual are useful background, but they are not interchangeable with FSA administrative portfolio totals. Source, period, and caveat fields should travel with each number.
LoanBrain and client data were not used. This is a public-source statistics page, not a client-data analysis.
Source and revision ledger
Each release is reviewed before “latest” moves forward. Prior editions stay available as immutable archives.
| Date | Edition | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2026-08-22 | 2026 Q2 combined update | Updated the Federal Reserve G.19 and NY Fed household-credit series through June 2026; retained FSA administrative data through March 31, 2026. |
| 2026-06-30 | 2026 Q2 FSA edition | Published the initial source-separated 2026 dataset, methodology, and CSV/JSON downloads. |
Current source-file checksums are recorded in the downloadable JSON and the quarterly refresh runbook.
Primary source list
Trends in Student Aid 2025
College Board
Private Student Loan Semi-Annual Report, Q3 2025
Enterval Analytics
Federal Reserve G.19 consumer credit release
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2025
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
Federal student loan portfolio by borrower age
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Federal student loan portfolio by debt size
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Defaulted Direct and ED-held FFEL portfolio by location
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Direct Loan portfolio by delinquency status
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Federal student loan portfolio by loan status
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Federal student loan portfolio by loan type
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Federal student loan portfolio by borrower location
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Federal Student Aid Data Center portfolio summary
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
PSLF combined report
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Direct Loan portfolio by repayment plan
U.S. Department of Education, Federal Student Aid
Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit, 2026 Q2
Federal Reserve Bank of New York
Federal student loan defaults return after the pandemic pause
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics
Student loan delinquencies and credit scores
Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics
Download the reviewed dataset
Latest links move only after source review. The 2026 edition URLs remain available, and the 2026 Q2 archive is immutable.