Average Student Loan Debt for a Bachelor's Degree: 2023 Analysis

Report Highlights. The average debt for a 4-year Bachelor’s degree is $35,530.

The average 4-year Bachelor’s degree debt from a public college is $31,960.
61% of students who completed a Bachelor’s degree have received student loans.
The average 4-year Bachelor’s degree debt from a private for-profit college is $47,730.
For private non-profit colleges, the average Bachelor’s degree debt is $39,510.

Average studen loan debt 1 on Education Data Initiative

Public School 4-year Undergraduate Loan Debt

Students accrue less undergraduate loan debt from a public 4-year college than private schools because tuition is partially subsidized by state funding. Residents are given the cheapest tuition possible because resident taxpayer dollars go into funding state schools.

The average 4-year Bachelor’s degree debt from a public college is $35,530.
55% of students seeking a Bachelor’s degree from a public 4-year college have student loan debt.
45% of students seeking a Bachelor’s degree from a public 4-year college have no student loan debt.
4% of Bachelor’s degree graduates who went to a public 4-year school owe over $60,000 in debt.
1 in 500 public school Bachelor’s degree graduates will have $100,000 in student loan debt.
80% of students who graduate with a Bachelor’s degree from an in-state public school will have loan debt under $30,000.

Average student loan debt 2 on Education Data Initiative

Private School 4-year Undergraduate Loan Debt

Students are saddled with more undergraduate loan debt from a private 4-year college because of the lack of state funding and tuition subsidization. Between private for-profit schools and private non-profit schools, Bachelor’s degree graduates typically accrue more debt at the for-profit schools.

For private non-profit colleges, the average Bachelor’s degree debt is $39,510.
The average 4-year Bachelor’s degree debt from a private for-profit college is $47,730.
17% of Bachelor’s degree graduates who went to a private non-profit 4-year school borrowed over $50,000.
26% of Bachelor degree graduates who went to a private for-profit 4-year school borrowed over $50,000.
Private for-profit colleges award roughly 7% of the nation’s total annual Bachelor’s degrees.

Average Bachelor Degree Debt at Private Nonprofit Colleges
Year	Debt per Borrower	Debt per Graduate
2007	$16,190	$30,000
2012	$19,190	$33,200
2017	$19,590	$34,000
2022	$19,890	$29,400

Public School vs Private School 4-year Undergraduate Loan Debt

Information about student loan debt from for-profit colleges is scarce. Only 2.7% of for-profit colleges release data about their student loan debt size.

82% of students from private for-profit 4-year colleges have student loan debt.
Their student loan debt averaged $47,730.
30% of students with loans from for-profit colleges defaulted on their federal student loans within 12 years.
4% of students with loans from public colleges defaulted on their federal student loans within 12 years.
5% of students with loans from non-profit colleges defaulted on their federal student loans within 12 years.

Average 4-year Bachelor’s Degree Debt by State

The majority of the states with the highest levels of debt are located in the northeast. The low-debt states are primarily concentrated in the west. In 10 lowest-debt states, the average debt was $22,786.

From 2004 to 2019, the student debt load had grown at twice the rate of inflation in 18 states.
In 5 states, inflation outpaced the student debt load.
New Hampshire has the highest average debt for students with a 4-year Bachelor’s degree – $39,928.
Utah has the lowest average debt for students with a 4-year Bachelor’s degree – $18,344.
At 73%, South Dakota is the state with the most amount of students in debt.
At 39%, Utah is the state with the least amount of students in debt.

Table of Average Bachelor’s Degree Debt per State
State	Average Debt	Percent of Students with Debt
Alabama	$30,996	51%
Alaska	$26,356	47%
Arizona	$24,298	47%
Arkansas	$27,319	54%
California	$21,125	46%
Colorado	$26,424	49%
Connecticut	$35,853	57%
Delaware	$39,705	60%
District of Columbia	$32,966	46%
Florida	$24,454	47%
Georgia	$27,759	56%
Hawaii	$24,926	45%
Idaho	$24,983	58%
Illinois	$28,552	57%
Indiana	$28,521	57%
Iowa	$29,560	60%
Kansas	$26,002	60%
Kentucky	$28,356	61%
Louisiana	$26,284	53%
Maine	$32,764	63%
Maryland	$30,461	55%
Massachusetts	$33,457	56%
Michigan	$29,863	58%
Minnesota	$32,012	64%
Mississippi	$29,714	58%
Missouri	$28,713	56%
Montana	$27,114	55%
Nebraska	$26,781	60%
Nevada	$21,357	46%
New Hampshire	$39,928	70%
New Jersey	$35,117	63%
New Mexico	$20,868	45%
New York	$30,951	54%
North Carolina	$29,681	55%
North Dakota	$31,939	66%
Ohio	$30,605	59%
Oklahoma	$27,876	50%
Oregon	$26,504	53%
Pennsylvania	$39,375	64%
Rhode Island	$36,791	64%
South Carolina	$32,635	60%
South Dakota	$32,029	73%
Tennessee	$26,852	53%
Texas	$26,273	52%
Utah	$18,344	39%
Vermont	$34,866	57%
Virginia	$329,616	55%
Washington	$23,993	47%
West Virginia	$29,208	66%
Wisconsin	$30,270	63%
Wyoming	$23,510	48%

Average 4-year Bachelor’s Degree Debt by Race

In 2019, on average 25% of Bachelor’s degree graduates experienced difficulty repaying their student loans. The moratorium on student debt payments in 2020 aided an estimated 95% of all borrowers. The suspension also halted delinquencies and default collections on outstanding debt. The data below only includes debt from federal loans.

Black borrowers averaged a student loan debt of $39,560.
White graduates had on average $35,790 in student loan debt from 4-year Bachelor’s degrees.
61% of White graduates had student loan debt.
Black graduates had nearly $3,800 more debt than white graduates.
Black borrowers who were experiencing difficulty paying their debt averaged $42,250 in student loans.
62% of Hispanic graduates had student loan debt.
Hispanic borrowers without difficulty paying off their Bachelor’s degree debt averaged $25,450 in loans.
Hispanic borrowers who experienced hardship trying to pay off their Bachelor’s degree debt averaged $34,750 in loans.
Hispanic graduates borrowed on average $31,470 for a 4-year Bachelor’s degree.
41% of Asian graduates had student loan debt.
Asian graduates borrow on average $35,500 for a 4-year Bachelor’s degree.
The figure below is the percentage of graduates from each race experiencing difficulty with their student loan debt 1 year after graduation in 2016.

Average student loan debt 3 on Education Data Initiative

Average 4-year Bachelor’s Degree Debt by Gender

Women tend to borrow more and have higher rates of student loan debt than men when pursuing their 4-year Bachelor’s degree. Among women, Black women assume the largest amounts of undergraduate debt.

66% of female students take out student loans to pay for their 4-year undergraduate education.
54% of male students take out student loans to pay for their 4-year undergraduate education.
Annually, 44% of women will take out loans for their undergraduate degree.
Annually, 39% of men will take out loans for their undergraduate degree.
Women take on roughly $1,260 more in student debt annually compared to men.
In 2012, 34% of Black women who graduated with a Bachelor’s degree had more than $40,000 in student debt.
In comparison, 16% of Hispanic women had that level of debt, 10% of White women, and 8% of Asian women.

Average student loan debt 4 on Education Data Initiative

Average Student Loan Debt for a Bachelor’s Degree