According to a Pew Research Center analysis of government data, approximately one out of five (19 percent) of the nation’s households owed student debt in 2010. This is double the number of households two decades earlier, and a significant increase from the 15 percent that owed student debt in 2007.
The report states that since 2007, student loan debt has increased in nearly every demographic and economic category. The size of the average outstanding student loan balance has also increased from $23,349 in 2007 to $26,682 in 2010.
The report also finds that student debt has risen from 3 percent of outstanding total household debt in 2007 to 5 percent of all household debts in 2010.