The following fact sheet provides data about student loan borrower default as of January 2026—for more information about sources, see below.

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

Defaults Crisis National Fact

Sources

EVERY 9 SECONDS, a new student loan borrower defaulted during the first year of the Trump Administration.

  • According to the U.S. Department of Education (ED), 3.62 million Americans were 271-360 days delinquent on their federal student loans in Q4 2025, up from zero new borrowers in Q1 2025.1 
  • Divided by the total number of seconds from January 20, 2025 to December 31, 2025 (approximately 29 million), this amounts to a borrower defaulting every 8.25 seconds. We round our estimate up to the nearest full second.

3.6 MILLION student loan borrowers have defaulted since January 2025.

  • According to ED, 3.62 million Americans were 271-360 days delinquent on their federal student loans in Q4 2025, up from zero new borrowers in Q1 2025. 
  • The Higher Education Act defines “default” as being more than 270 days past due.2

8.8 MILLION total ED-held federal student loan borrowers are in default.

  • According to ED, 5.2 million borrowers were identified as in default as of September 2025,3 and 3.62 million Americans were 271-360 days delinquent on their federal student loans in Q4 2025.4 
  • The Higher Education Act defines “default” as being more than 270 days past due.5 We therefore added together the loans reported as in default (5.2 million) and loans 271-360 days delinquent to yield 8.8 million borrowers whose loans are in default as of January 2025.

$92+ BILLION of defaulted student loan debt since January 2025.

  • According to ED, $92.6 billion in outstanding federal student loan balances were 271-360 days delinquent in Q4 2025. In Q1 2025, the same figure was zero.6

$208+ BILLION total ED-held federal student loan debt in default.

  • According to ED, $116.1 billion in outstanding balances were identified as in default in September 2025,7 and $92.6 billion in outstanding balances were 271-360 days delinquent on their federal student loans in Q4 2025.8
  • The Higher Education Act defines “default” as being more than 270 days past due.9 We therefore added together the outstanding balances reported as in default ($116.1 billion) and outstanding balances 271-360 days delinquent ($92.6 billion) to yield $208.7 billion in outstanding balances that are in default as of January 2025.

~2/3 of defaulted borrowers live in states that President Trump won in the 2024 election.

  • Our estimate projects the number of newly defaulted borrowers and volume of newly defaulted dollars for each state, assuming the distribution of newly defaulted borrowers and newly defaulted dollars mirrors the distribution of the existing stock of borrowers and dollars in default as reported by ED. 
  • We then identified every state that awarded a majority of its Electoral College votes to the Trump-Vance ticket in the 2024 presidential election and added the volume of newly defaulted borrowers and volume of newly defaulted dollars corresponding to these states. In the aggregate, nearly two-thirds (62.07 percent) of newly defaulted dollars and nearly two-thirds (62.56 percent) of newly defaulted borrowers live in states where the Trump-Vance ticket won.

8+ MILLION borrowers had their credit score damaged from falling behind on student loans in 2025.

  • According to ED, 8.14 million Americans were more than 90 days delinquent on their federal student loans in 2025.10
  • Once a borrower is over 90 days delinquent on a federal student loan, the student loan servicer reports the delinquency to the credit reporting agencies.11

Endnotes

  1. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, Portfolio by Delinquency Status (DL, ED-Held FFEL, ED-Owned), (accessed Jan. 5, 2025), https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/fsawg/datacenter/library/DLPortfoliobyDelinquencyStatus.xls (as archived at https://perma.cc/5BNL-H26P). ↩︎
  2. 20 USC § 1085(l). ↩︎
  3. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, Defaulted Portfolio by Location, (accessed Jan. 5, 2025), https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/fsawg/datacenter/library/default-by-location.xls (as archived at https://perma.cc/77Y4-8MPQ). ↩︎
  4. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, Portfolio by Delinquency Status (DL, ED-Held FFEL, ED-Owned), (accessed Jan. 5, 2025), https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/fsawg/datacenter/library/DLPortfoliobyDelinquencyStatus.xls (as archived at https://perma.cc/5BNL-H26P). ↩︎
  5. 20 USC § 1085(l). ↩︎
  6. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, Portfolio by Delinquency Status (DL, ED-Held FFEL, ED-Owned), (accessed Jan. 5, 2025), https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/fsawg/datacenter/library/DLPortfoliobyDelinquencyStatus.xls (as archived at https://perma.cc/5BNL-H26P). ↩︎
  7. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, Defaulted Portfolio by Location, (accessed Jan. 5, 2025), https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/fsawg/datacenter/library/default-by-location.xls (as archived at https://perma.cc/77Y4-8MPQ). ↩︎
  8. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, Portfolio by Delinquency Status (DL, ED-Held FFEL, ED-Owned), (accessed Jan. 5, 2025), https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/fsawg/datacenter/library/DLPortfoliobyDelinquencyStatus.xls (as archived at https://perma.cc/5BNL-H26P). ↩︎
  9. 20 USC § 1085(l). ↩︎
  10. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, Portfolio by Delinquency Status (DL, ED-Held FFEL, ED-Owned), (accessed Jan. 5, 2025), https://studentaid.gov/sites/default/files/fsawg/datacenter/library/DLPortfoliobyDelinquencyStatus.xls (as archived at https://perma.cc/5BNL-H26P). ↩︎
  11. U.S. Department of Education, Office of Federal Student Aid, Understanding Delinquency, (accessed Jan. 5, 2025), https://studentaid.gov/manage-loans/default#understand-delinquency. ↩︎