According to the Federal Reserve, Americans owe $1.7 trillion in student loans as of September 30, 2020. Let’s break it down into who owes how much.
Of the total, nearly $1.6 trillion (92%) is federal and $133 billion is private. There are about 45.8 million borrowers who owe an average of about $37,000 each in federal and private student loans.
A total of $1.4 trillion is held by the U.S. Department of Education, including $1.32 trillion in the Direct Loan program and $86 billion in the Federal Family Education Loan Program (FFELP). There is $160 billion in FFELP loans held by banks, credit unions, state loan agencies and other financial institutions.