Black families carry largest student loan burdens
A new analysis examines how racial demographics are affected by student loans.
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.
The analysis also examined how racial demographics are affected by student loans. A higher percentage of Black families owe student loan debt than any other race, and they owe more on average, according to the report. Nearly a third (30.2%) of Black families owe a median debt of $30,000, compared to 20% of white families owing a median debt of $23,000. Figures are even lower for Hispanic families, 14.3% of whom owe a median debt of $17,600.
Further, the analysis suggests that the gap between different ethnicities is only increasing, with the gap between the median debt of Black and white families increasing sixfold since 2016. The report suggests that the difference may be due in part to income disparities, as Black families have lower income on average than either white or Hispanic households.
Other key findings include that Americans without college degrees still hold significant levels of student loan debt; and that people in managerial or professional positions are the most likely to hold student loan debt compared to those in other occupations, which the report notes could be due to the fact that many professional positions require workers to have college degrees.