The student loan debt crisis is not equally distributed across people of different ethnicities, with Black families carrying the largest average debt burdens, according to a recent analysis by Lending Tree.

The report, which pulls data from the Federal Research 2019 Survey of Consumer Finances, examines how individuals from different demographics have been affected by student loan debt. It shows that the median student loan debt amongst all debt-holding families was $22,000 in 2019, an increase from the previous 2016 data, when the median debt sat at $20,210. 

However, even as the median debt burden went up, the share of families with student loan debt decreased, down to 21.4% from 22.3% in 2016. That change may be due to climbing tuition fees, the analysis notes. As even while the cost for the average borrower rises, sky-high prices might deter others from taking on student loans, thus decreasing the total share of borrowers.