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Student Loan Debt America by the Numbers

The Guardian

by Heidi Moore

Wednesday 3 April 2013 10.55 EDT

Some essential facts and figures on the state of student loan debt in America that everyone should know

• Amount of student debt owed in the US: $1 trillion

• Number of student loan borrowers in the US: 37 million

• Amount of federal student loans owed directly to the US government:$864 billion

• Amount of student loans owed to private lenders, like banks: $150 billion

• Percentage of private student loans that came from the same seven private lenders: 87%

• Percentage of borrowers surveyed by the Consumer Financial Protection Agency who complained that their lender was unresponsive to requests to renegotiate loans: 65%

• The percentage of borrowers who take out more than $100,000 in student loans: 3%