The New York Fed is out with its Household Debt and Credit report for Q2 2025, looking at aggregate household debt and debts of varying kinds, including student loan debt. Here are three key findings from their historical data:
The total student loan balance for the second quarter of 2025 was $1.64 trillion. In Q1, it stood at $1.63 trillion.
The current delinquency rate — the share of aggregate student loan debt reported 90 or more days delinquent — is 10.2%, up from 7.7% in the first quarter. Delinquency rates are particularly important, as delinquencies for federal student loans were not reported to the credit bureaus from the second quarter of 2020 to the last quarter of 2024. This was the Covid-era repayment pause and the year-long “on-ramp” grace period for repayment that ended September 30, 2024.
Total student loan debt is nearly 7 times as large as it was in 2003. In the first quarter of 2003, the total outstanding student loan debt was $240 billion, compared to $1.64 trillion in the second quarter of 2025. The third quarter of 2013 marked the first time that total student loan debt surpassed $1 trillion ($1.03 trillion).
The amount of debt that is 90+ days delinquent is 11 times as large as it was in 2003. In the first quarter of 2003, about $14.8 billion in student loan debt was 90 days or more delinquent. In the second quarter of 2025, that share had risen to $166.4 billion.
As we’ve written before, the federal student loan program is in serious financial trouble, with a GAO analysis from last summer finding that almost half of borrowers (47%) were behind on their payments, had postponed their payments, or had had their payments deferred, accounting for $544 billion in student loan dollars.
From our research earlier this year on student lending and student debt (1,500 registered voters May 6-9), 76% of voters say colleges and universities charge more than what the degree is worth (4% less, 11% about what the degree is worth). Another 64% agreed with the statement Taxpayers should not be responsible for covering the cost of a college education that is not their own (64-23 believe-do not believe). This included 80% of Republicans (80-13), 64% of independents (64-23), and 48% of Democrats (48-33).
The reconciliation bill signed in July included some measures meant to encourage repayment as well as more fiscally responsible borrowing and lowering the cost of college. But we should expect future measures from Congress, particularly pertaining to preventing and helping people manage larger loan balances.
For more from our student loan research, click here.
