Percentage of Student-Loan and Other Debt That Was Seriously Delinquent, 2003 to 2019

In the first quarter of 2003, the percentage of student-loan debt that was seriously delinquent — at least 90 days overdue — was below that of credit-card debt. In 2012, student-loan debt began regularly surpassing all other debt categories for the percentage of the balance in serious delinquency. In the first quarter of 2019, 10.9 percent of all student debt owed was seriously delinquent. That is two to three percentage points higher than the rates of delinquency for mortgages during the worst of the housing crisis, in 2009-11.

Note: Debt is estimated on a quarterly basis by using a nationally representative sample of adults with consumer-credit reports. The percentage of each category that is seriously delinquent is calculated by dividing the outstanding balance of loans in each category that are at least 90 days overdue by the total outstanding balance in each category. In the case of student loans, the total outstanding balance is close to $1.5 trillion. More data are available here.

Source: Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax

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