Average Student Loan Debt for a Bachelor's Degree: 2021 Analysis

Report Highlights. The average debt for a 4-year Bachelor’s degree is $28,800.

The average 4-year Bachelor’s degree debt from a public college is $27,000.
65% of students seeking a Bachelor’s degree from a public 4 year college have student loan debt.
The average 4-year Bachelor’s degree debt from a private for-profit college is $39,900.
For private non-profit colleges, the average Bachelor’s degree debt is $33,700.

Timeline of Average Debt 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 tax payer dollars go into funding state schools.

The average 4-year Bachelor’s degree debt from a public college is $27,000.
65% of students seeking a Bachelor’s degree from a public 4 year college have student loan debt.
35% of students seeking a Bachelor’s degree from a public 4 year college have no student loan debt.
12 % of Bachelor degree graduates who went to a public 4-year school owe over $40,000 in debt.
1 in 1,000 in-state public school bachelor degree graduates will have $100,000 in student loan debt.
88% of students who graduate with a bachelor’s degree from an in-state public school will have loan debt under $30,000.

Average Bachelor Degree Debt for Public Colleges
Year	Debt per Borrower	Debt per Graduate
2003-04	$22,800	$12,400
2008-09	$24,100	$13,400
2013-14	$27,400	$16,300
2018-19	$27,000	$14,900

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 degree graduates typically accrue more debt at the for-profit schools.

For private non-profit colleges, the average Bachelor’s degree debt is $33,700.
The average 4-year Bachelor’s degree debt from a private for-profit college is $39,900.
20% of Bachelor degree graduates who went to a private non-profit 4-year school owe over $40,000 in debt.
Roughly 50% of Bachelor degree graduates who went to a private for-profit 4-year school owed over $40,000 in debt.
Private for-profit colleges award roughly 5% of the nation’s total annual Bachelor degrees.

Average Bachelor Degree Debt for Private Non-profit Colleges
Year	Debt per Borrower	Debt per Graduate
2003-04	$28,100	$17,900
2008-09	$31,700	$20,600
2013-14	$32,600	$20,800
2018-19	$33,700	$19,500

Public School vs Private School 4-year Undergraduate Loan Debt

This dataset comes from 2016 – before the 2020 pandemic suspension on student loan payments. Information about student loan debt from for-profit colleges is scarce. Only 3% of for-profit colleges release data about their student loan debt size.

83% of students from private for-profit 4 year colleges have student loan debt.
Their student loan debt averaged $39,900.
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.

Private and Public College Debt on Education Data Initiative

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 26 states the average debt was over $30,000 – 5 of them in particular had an average over $35,000.

Over the past 17 years, the student debt load has grown by 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 – $39,410.
Utah has the lowest average debt for students with a 4-year Bachelor’s degree – $17,935.
At 74%, New Hampshire and South Dakota are tied as the states with the most amount of students in debt.
At 40%, 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	$29,791	50%
Alaska	$25,925	48%
Arizona	$24,712	49%
Arkansas	$26,679	53%
California	$21,485	47%
Colorado	$26,562	50%
Connecticut	$38,546	56%
Delaware	$37,447	59%
District of Columbia	$32,039	46%
Florida	$24,629	48%
Georgia	$28,081	56%
Hawaii	$23,577	43%
Idaho	$25,942	60%
Illinois	$29,666	61%
Indiana	$28,112	59%
Iowa	$30,259	63%
Kansas	$26,788	60%
Kentucky	$28,482	58%
Louisiana	$25,512	48%
Maine	$33,591	67%
Maryland	$30,303	53%
Massachusetts	$33,256	55%
Michigan	$30,677	59%
Minnesota	$31,856	66%
Mississippi	$31,651	55%
Missouri	$28,740	57%
Montana	$27,265	57%
Nebraska	$26,026	57%
Nevada	$21,254	46%
New Hampshire	$39,410	74%
New Jersey	$33,566	64%
New Mexico	$20,991	45%
New York	$31,155	58%
North Carolina	$26,583	55%
North Dakota	$32,745	64%
Ohio	$29,886	60%
Oklahoma	$25,793	47%
Oregon	$27,542	54%
Pennsylvania	$39,027	65%
Rhode Island	$37,614	59%
South Carolina	$31,524	60%
South Dakota	$31,653	74%
Tennessee	$27,525	60%
Texas	$26,951	48%
Utah	$17,935	40%
Vermont	$30,566	60%
Virginia	$30,574	56%
Washington	$24,645	50%
West Virginia	$29,272	67%
Wisconsin	$31,550	64%
Wyoming	$23,444	46%

Average 4-year Bachelor’s Degree Debt by Race

In 2016, on average 28% of Bachelor’s degree graduates experienced difficulty repaying their student loans 1 year after graduation. The moratorium on student debt payments in 2020 aided an estimated 88% of all borrowers. The suspension also halted delinquencies and default collections on outstanding debt. The data below only includes debt from federal loans.

In 2016, 85% of Black borrowers averaged a student loan debt of $34,000.
White graduates had on average $26,000 in student loan debt from 4-year Bachelor’s degrees.
66% of White graduates had student loan debt.
Black graduates have nearly $8,000 more debt than White graduates.
Black borrowers who were experiencing difficulty paying their debt averaged $42,250 in student loans.
68% of Hispanic graduates have student loan debt.
Hispanic borrowers without difficulty paying off their Bachelor degree debt averaged $25,450 in loans.
Hispanic borrowers who experienced hardship trying to pay off their Bachelor degree debt averaged $34,750 in loans.
Hispanic graduates borrowed on average $25,700 for a 4-year Bachelor’s degree.
43% of Asian graduates had student loan debt.
Asian graduates borrowed on average $22,700 for a 4-year Bachelor’s degree.
The table below is the percentage of graduates from each race experiencing difficulty with their student loan debt 1 year after graduation.

Races with Payment Difficulty 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.

70% of female students take out student loans to pay for their 4-year undergraduate education.
63% 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 $400 more in student debt annually compared to men.
In 2012, 1/3rd or 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.

Gender Debt Timeline on Education Data Initiative

Average Student Loan Debt for a Bachelor’s Degree