Average Debt Levels of Private Nonprofit Sector Bachelor’s Degree Recipients over Time

About 66% of students who earned bachelor’s degrees in 2010-11 from the private nonprofit four-year colleges at which they began their studies graduated with debt. Average debt per borrower was $29,900, up from $23,400 (in 2011 dollars) a decade earlier.

Figure 12B: Average Total Debt Levels of Bachelor’s Degree Recipients, Private Nonprofit Four-Year Colleges and Universities, in 2011 Dollars, 1999-2000 to 2010-11
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Average Debt Levels of Private Nonprofit Sector Bachelor’s Degree Recipients ove

Only students who began their studies at the institution from which they graduated are included in the data reported here. The blue bars represent the average debt levels of bachelor's degree recipients who relied on student loans. The orange bars represent average debt per bachelor's degree recipient, including those who graduated without student debt. The percentages along the base of the axis represent the percentage of degree recipients who borrowed.

Notes & Sources 

NOTE: Debt figures include both federal loans and loans from nonfederal sources that have been reported to the institutions. Transfer students are excluded. Some students earn more than one bachelor’s degree and some institutions may report number of degrees rather than number of degree recipients. This would lead to a slight under-estimate of debt per graduating student. Debt figures are based on institutional reporting to the College Board and are best approximations. Estimates for 2010-11 incorporate both the responses for that year and the change from 2009-10 for schools reporting for both years. Exact dollar amounts should be interpreted with caution. The data are not adequate to allow comparable calculations for for-profit institutions.

SOURCES: Annual Survey of Colleges, 2001 to 2012; calculations by the authors.

Key Points
  • Among all bachelor's degree recipients at private nonprofit four-year institutions (both borrowers and nonborrowers) who earned their degrees from the institution at which they began their studies, average debt was $19,700 in 2010-11.
  • Among private nonprofit bachelor's degree recipients, borrowing grew less rapidly from 2005-06 to 2010-11 than it had during the preceding five years. Debt per borrower grew at an average annual rate of 1.2% beyond inflation and average debt per graduate grew at an average annual rate of 1.5%. These figures were 3.8% and 4.6%, respectively, from 2000-01 to 2005-06.
Also Important
  • Among students earning bachelor's degrees in 2010-11 from either the public or private nonprofit four-year colleges at which they began their studies, the 60% who borrowed graduated with an average debt of $25,300. For all of these bachelor's degree recipients, including those with no debt, the average amount borrowed was $15,100.
  • As Figures 11A and 11B reveal, students who earn their bachelor's degrees at for-profit institutions are more likely to borrow than those who attend public and private nonprofit colleges, and those who borrow tend to accumulate higher average levels of debt.