Student Loan Delinquency Statistics

As of the second quarter of 2026, 10.6% of student-loan balances reported to credit bureaus were 90 or more days delinquent, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York Consumer Credit Panel. The rate was 10.34% in Q1 2026 and 7.74% in Q1 2025, after delinquent federal student loans began appearing on credit reports again.

Federal Student Aid measures delinquency differently. Among ED-serviced federal loans in active repayment, 15.7% of the outstanding balance was at least 31 days delinquent as of June 30, 2026. Nearly 20% of recipients in active repayment—about 3.5 million people—were more than 30 days past due.

Student Loan Delinquency Is Measured More Than One Way

The main national delinquency statistics come from two reporting systems. The New York Fed uses anonymized Equifax credit-report data. Federal Student Aid uses administrative records for federally managed loans. Their delinquency thresholds, populations and denominators differ.

Serious Delinquency Returned to Double Digits

The share of student-loan balances reported as 90 or more days delinquent rose sharply when missed federal loan payments began appearing on credit reports again. The rate moved from 0.53% in Q4 2024 to 7.74% in Q1 2025 and 10.16% in Q2 2025.

The rate remained near 9% to 10% over the following four quarters and reached 10.6% in Q2 2026. These are balance-level rates: they measure the portion of outstanding dollars that is seriously delinquent, not the percentage of borrowers who are delinquent.

Federal Delinquency Among Borrowers in Active Repayment

Federal Student Aid’s administrative data provide another view of repayment performance. Active repayment includes borrowers whose loans are in a repayment status and excludes loans in statuses where a monthly payment is not expected, such as in-school, grace, deferment or forbearance.

In December 2025, 23.2% of ED-serviced recipients in active repayment were more than 30 days delinquent. The reported count exceeded four million. By March 2026, the count was about 3.5 million and the recipient rate was about 20%. In June 2026, the count remained about 3.5 million and FSA described nearly 20% of active-repayment recipients as more than 30 days delinquent.

The balance-based 31+ day delinquency rate fell from 18.6% in December 2025 to 15.5% in March 2026, then moved to 15.7% in June. Federal Student Aid reported a 12.7% balance delinquency rate in December 2019, the last quarter before the pandemic-era federal payment pause, as a pre-pause comparison.

New Serious Delinquency Slowed in 2026

The New York Fed also publishes a flow measure rather than a point-in-time delinquency stock. It measures balances that newly became at least 90 days delinquent during the quarter as a share of balances that had been current or less than 90 days past due in the previous quarter. The published rate is annualized.

The flow rate fell for two consecutive quarters after Q4 2025. Q2 2026 was also below the 12.88% recorded in Q2 2025. This does not mean the stock of seriously delinquent debt fell at the same pace: the stock rate was still 10.6% in Q2 2026 because the two measures answer different questions.

Why the 2020–2024 Delinquency Rates Need Caution

Federal student loan payments were paused during the pandemic period and resumed in October 2023. A separate repayment on-ramp temporarily prevented missed federal student loan payments from being reported to credit bureaus. The New York Fed states that missed federal payments that had not been reported from Q2 2020 through Q4 2024 began appearing on credit reports in Q1 2025.

That reporting change is why the credit-bureau delinquency series moved from less than 1% in late 2024 to 7.74% in Q1 2025. The change should not be interpreted as 7.21% of all student-loan balances newly becoming seriously delinquent within one quarter. Part of the jump reflects previously unreported delinquency becoming visible in credit records.

Data Notes

• New York Fed 90+ day rate: a balance-level measure from the Consumer Credit Panel, a nationally representative sample built from anonymized Equifax credit data. It is not a borrower delinquency rate.
• New York Fed flow rate: an annualized measure of balances newly entering 90+ day delinquency. It should not be substituted for the quarter-end share of balances already 90+ days delinquent.
• Federal 31+ day rate: covers ED-serviced loans in active repayment. Borrowers in grace, in-school, deferment, forbearance, bankruptcy or disability statuses are outside FSA’s active-repayment calculation.
• Recipient counts: FSA status reporting can count a recipient in more than one status when that person has separate loans in different statuses. Status categories therefore should not be added to produce an unduplicated borrower count.
• Recent comparisons: both FSA and the New York Fed warn that pandemic payment policies and the later return of delinquency reporting break simple comparisons between recent quarters and the 2020–2024 period.
• DebtData’s sitewide rules for source selection, definitions, rounding and series comparability are described in the DebtData methodology.

Sources

• Federal Student Aid Posts Updated Reports to FSA Data Center — Federal Student Aid, September 22, 2026; portfolio data through June 30, 2026. Used for active-repayment delinquency rates, recipient counts and late-stage delinquency.
• Quarterly Report on Household Debt and Credit — Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Consumer Credit Panel/Equifax; Q2 2026 release and underlying quarterly data. Used for balance-level serious delinquency and recent quarterly history.
• Household Debt Balances Decreased Slightly; Credit Card Delinquency Transition Rates Remained Steady — Federal Reserve Bank of New York, August 11, 2026. Used for Q2 2026 student-loan balance and serious-delinquency transition measures.
• Household Debt Balances Rise Slightly as Delinquency Transition Rates Hold Steady — Federal Reserve Bank of New York, May 12, 2026. Used for Q1 2026 serious-delinquency stock and flow measures and the Q4 2025 comparison.
• Change in Household Debt Balances Mixed; Student Loan Delinquencies Rise Sharply — Federal Reserve Bank of New York, May 13, 2025. Used for Q1 2025 delinquency data and the return of missed federal student-loan payments to credit reports.
• Student Loan Delinquencies Are Back, and Credit Scores Take a Tumble — Federal Reserve Bank of New York Liberty Street Economics, May 13, 2025. Used for measurement distinctions and the post-on-ramp reporting break.