Student-Loan Delinquencies Among the Young Soar

Published March 1, 2013 3:24pm ET



 

The number of young borrowers who have fallen behind on their student loan payments has soared over the past four years, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York said in a report released Thursday.

According to the report, 35% of people under 30 who have student loans were at least 90 days late on their payments at the end of last year, up from 26% in 2008 and 21% at the end of 2004.

The new figures, which exclude borrowers who are still in school or aren’t yet required to make payments, show that young Americans are having a tougher time repaying college loans as debt loads increase and job prospects remain shaky.

With total student-loan debt approaching the trillion-dollar mark, WSJ’s Jason Bellini deconstructs how we got here and what it all means. Image: Getty

Amplifying the burden: a growing number of young adults have become student borrowers. All told, 43% of 25-year-olds had student debt in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from about 33% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

Read more at The WSJ