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News

Average Education-Related Debt of Doctorate Recipients, by Gender, Race, and Field, 2016

Almanac 2018 August 19, 2018

Women accumulated more debt than men at every level of higher education, but the gender gap was overshadowed by racial disparities. Black recipients of doctorates borrowed far more than did their counterparts in other racial and ethnic groups. African-Americans’ cumulative undergraduate and graduate debt was nearly four and a half times that of Asians and more than twice that of whites. Among all doctorate recipients, those in the field of education had the greatest education-related debt. The amount was three and a half times that of their counterparts in mathematics and computer science, who owed the least.

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Women accumulated more debt than men at every level of higher education, but the gender gap was overshadowed by racial disparities. Black recipients of doctorates borrowed far more than did their counterparts in other racial and ethnic groups. African-Americans’ cumulative undergraduate and graduate debt was nearly four and a half times that of Asians and more than twice that of whites. Among all doctorate recipients, those in the field of education had the greatest education-related debt. The amount was three and a half times that of their counterparts in mathematics and computer science, who owed the least.


Return to the Almanac home page, or go to the Profession, Students, Finance, or States section. To purchase a copy of the Almanac in print or as a downloadable interactive PDF, visit the Chronicle Store. Help guide us to give you the data you need by taking our 10-minute online Almanac survey.


By genderUndergraduate
debt
Graduate
debt
Cumulative
debt
Female $9,709 $18,103 $27,646
Male $8,128 $12,601 $20,611

By race and
ethnicity
Undergraduate
debt
Graduate
debt
Cumulative
debt
American Indian/Alaska Native $13,833 $29,286 $42,875
Asian $5,691 $8,995 $14,600
Black/African-American $23,325 $42,501 $65,255
Hispanic/Latino $15,093 $24,486 $39,381
White $10,909 $17,869 $28,664
2 or more races $12,052 $22,141 $34,128

By citizenship
status
Undergraduate
debt
Graduate
debt
Cumulative
debt
U.S. citizen or permanent resident $11,604 $19,339 $30,803
Temporary visa holder $2,793 $5,834 $8,552

By fieldUndergraduate
debt
Graduate
debt
Cumulative
debt
Life sciences $9,145 $11,513 $20,562
Physical and earth sciences $8,339 $5,877 $14,156
Mathematics and computer sciences $4,906 $6,731 $11,564
Psychology and social sciences $11,072 $25,485 $36,347
Engineering $5,749 $6,554 $12,228
Education $12,599 $28,591 $40,827
Humanities and arts $10,011 $21,345 $31,213
Other fields $8,586 $23,453 $31,874
All $8,853 $15,125 $23,838

Note: Debt was tallied by asking recipients to choose a debt range, presented in increments of $10,000, from “no debt” to "$90,001 or more.” To estimate overall debt, the midpoints of each range for undergraduate and graduate debt were selected and added together to yield a total debt amount. All valid reponses, including “no debt,” which was assigned a value of $0, were used to compute average debt levels. Those in the uppermost range were assigned a value of $95,000. Only education-related debt is reported. “Life sciences” includes agricultural sciences and natural resources, biological and biomedical sciences, and health sciences. “Other” includes nonscience and nonengineering fields not shown elsewhere. People who identified themselves as Hispanic may be of any race. Asians do not include Native Hawaiians or other Pacific Islanders. Data for doctorate recipients of “other race or race not reported” (which includes Native Hawaiians and other Pacific Islanders) and “ethnicity not reported” were excluded from this table. More data can be found here. Questions or comments on the Almanac should be sent to the Almanac editor.

Source: Survey of Earned Doctorates by National Science Foundation and five other federal agencies</small></p>

A version of this article appeared in the August 24, 2018, issue.
Read other items in Students: Almanac 2018.
We welcome your thoughts and questions about this article. Please email the editors or submit a letter for publication.
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