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The student loan delinquency rate is surging, new research finds.
Nearly 25% of student loan borrowers with a payment due are now behind, compared with around 9% in 2019, during President Donald Trump’s first term, according to a report published Friday by The Century Foundation, a left-leaning think tank.
Around 7.9 million student loan borrowers entered delinquency in the first three quarters of 2025 alone, the authors of the study wrote. The foundation used data from the University of California Consumer Credit Panel, a 2% nationally representative sample of U.S. adults with credit records, for its analysis.
The researchers said the Trump administration’s policies during the president’s second term are to blame for the spike in delinquencies.
“By blocking access to the very programs designed to help struggling borrowers, Donald Trump is trapping millions in a spiral of debt that is destroying their credit scores and locking them out of homeownership, buying a car and other life milestones,” said Peter Granville, a fellow at The Century Foundation and lead author of the study.
Ellen Keast, press secretary for higher education at the Education Department, said the Biden administration had masked delinquency rates with its relief measures for student loan borrowers.
“The idea of a sudden increase in delinquencies in student loans is a misnomer,” Keast said. “The Trump Administration is once again reporting full and accurate data on student loan repayment instead of extending so-called flexibilities related to a pandemic that ended five years ago.”
More than 42 million Americans hold student loans, and the outstanding debt exceeds $1.6 trillion, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Borrowers face repayment, credit challenges
Student loan borrowers are facing a recent barrage of changes to the lending system, including the end of the Biden administration’s Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan. That plan was designed to be the most affordable repayment plan to date, but faced Republican-led legal challenges and was ultimately blocked in court.
For roughly five years, starting with the Covid pandemic, student loan borrowers who missed their payments were also shielded from collection activity and negative credit reporting. That relief is now expired.
Around 2 million student loan borrowers with delinquent loans have seen their credit scores fall, with an average drop in score to 580 from 680, the Foundation estimates. Credit scores, which impact people’s ability and costs to borrow, typically range from 300 to 850, with around 670 and higher considered good.
The Education Department announced last year that it would begin collection activity against defaulted borrowers, but has repeatedly paused those enforcement efforts.
The Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce have likely also exacerbated student loan borrowers’ repayment struggles, said higher education expert Mark Kantrowitz.
In March, Trump officials terminated thousands of the Education Department’s staffers, including many who helped borrowers. The administration has also rolled back the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s enforcement activity and sought to reduce the agency’s staff and funding, although many of those actions have been challenged in court. The CFPB oversees student loan servicers and combats abusive practices in the lending space.
“When you get rid of people who help borrowers face financial challenges, is it any surprise that these borrowers encounter problems dealing with debt?” Kantrowitz said.
More than 600,000 federal student loan holders remain in a backlog of applications for an affordable repayment plan, the Education Department disclosed in a recent court filing. More than 86,000 borrowers are waiting for a decision from the department on their student loan forgiveness.
Which student loan borrowers are struggling
Student loan delinquency rates are especially high in several Southern states, according to the Century Foundation’s analysis.
In Louisiana and Mississippi, the analysis found, nearly 40% of federal student loan borrowers with payments due are delinquent, the largest shares nationwide.
Black borrowers are struggling most, the researchers found.
Around 20% of white student loan borrowers were past-due in the third quarter of 2025, compared with more than 48% of Black student loan borrowers and around 30% of Hispanic borrowers.
Why it could get worse for student loan borrowers
Trump‘s One Big Beautiful Bill Act’s overhaul to the student loan system is likely to make it harder for people to afford their payments, consumer advocates say. The law phases out several affordable repayment plans and lengthens terms for others.
The median U.S. household, with a family of four and an income of $81,000, could see its monthly bill surge to $440 from $36, due to the legislative changes, according to the Institute for College Access & Success, a nonprofit organization that promotes college affordability.
