The fact sheet includes data showing how borrowers and families in the Los Angeles, California metropolitan area are experiencing severe delinquency on the precipice of the impending student loan default crisis, and that women are disproportionately burdened by student debt.

Protect Borrowers sourced the most recently available data from the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and the American Association of University Women (AAUW) for this fact sheet.

The data covers the metropolitan statistical area for Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA, as defined by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

View the Fact Sheet: See Here

Read the Press Release: See Here

December 2025 Fact Sheet Los Angeles California Roundtable_FINAL

Sources

  1. The population of the metropolitan statistical area (MSA) and percentage of population under age 18 were published by Census Reporter. The most recent available data are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey. This was used to calculate the number of people over age 18, which was then multiplied by the percentage of adults with student debt in the MSA (published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; the most recent available data are from 2025 Q1).

  1. The average student loan balance per borrower in the MSA was published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia (the most recent available data are from 2025 Q1). This was multiplied by the estimated number of student loan borrowers in the MSA.

  1. The average student loan balance per borrower in the MSA was published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The most recent available data are from 2025 Q1.

  1. AAUW estimates that women hold two-thirds of student loan debt in America (AAUW’s estimation is from their 2017 report Deeper in Debt: Women & Student Loans). We estimated the amount of student debt owed by women in each MSA by taking two-thirds of the previously calculated total student debt for the MSA.

  1. The number of severely delinquent borrowers was calculated by multiplying the number of borrowers by the percentage that is severely delinquent in the MSA, both published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia.

  1. The change in aggregate delinquent student debt vs. one year prior in the MSA is published by the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia. The most recent available data are from 2025 Q1.