Fact Sheet: Student Debt Default Crisis By the Numbers

The following fact sheet quantifies the severity and impact of default among federal student loan borrowers across the country. Student Borrower Protection Center created this fact sheet using data from the U.S. Department of Education and its office of Federal Student Aid—for more information about sources, see below.

The data underscore how default has disastrous consequences for borrowers and their families. For many, default is a lifetime sentence, and America’s most vulnerable communities—older, low-income, borrowers with disabilities, and Black borrowers—are disproportionately impacted. As the Trump Administration turns on its draconian collections machine, millions more will be subjected to the cruelty of involuntary collections in the form of garnished wages and offset social security payments. Student loan default is a crisis and one of the many ways the federal government punishes people for being too poor to pursue the “American dream” they were promised. 

View the Fact Sheet: Student Debt Default Crisis By the Numbers

Sources

1. The frequency of federal student loan defaults was calculated for and published in this 2020 SBPC analysis. The analysis combined each of the quarterly 2019 new Direct Loan defaults published by the U.S. Department of Education (ED)’s office of Federal Student Aid. Note: 2019 was the last full year that these data were published. 
2. The number of ED-held federal student loan borrowers in default was published by ED’s office of Federal Student Aid.
3. The number of borrowers age 50 and over was published by ED in a 2023 fact sheet. Page six of the document lists the ages of defaulted Direct Loan and Federal Family Education Loans (FFEL) borrowers as of December 2020. Adding the borrowers ages “50 to 61” and “62 and older” totals 2,579,400, which rounds to 2.6 million older borrowers in default. 
4. The number of borrowers who have missed a payment was published by Federal Student Aid as of March 31, 2025. Combining the recipients from the columns labelled: 31-90 days delinquent, 91-180 days, 181-270 days, and 271-360 days delinquent from both the Direct Loan Portfolio sheet and the ED-Held Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP) loans sheet totals 7.93 million borrowers, rounded to 8 million. 
5. The number of borrowers that have had their credit score damaged was published by Federal Student Aid as of March 31, 2025. Once a borrower falls 90 days past due on their loan, ED begins to report the delinquency to credit bureaus. 
6. The number of borrowers that have been in default for 20 years or longer was published by ED in a 2023 fact sheet. 
7. The number of borrowers that have been in default for 20 years or longer and paid off more than they borrowed was published by ED in a 2023 fact sheet. 
8. The rates at which Black and white undergraduate degree holders default was published by the Brookings Institution in 2019 using data from ED’s National Center for Education Statistics. 
9. The number of defaulted borrowers who received a Pell Grant was published by ED in a 2023 fact sheet.