The student loan delinquency rate for student loan borrowers grew from roughly zero to nearly 25 percent in 2025, according to a devastating report from The Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers.
The report found that nearly 9 million student loan borrowers—or, one out of every five borrowers—are in default. Further, 3/4 of borrowers moving from delinquency into default had never defaulted on a student loan before.
The report links the rise in delinquencies to the Trump administration’s actions to block borrowers’ access to income-driven plans that make loan payments more affordable. The U.S. Department of Education had “ordered a stoppage in application processing for three months and mass-denied 328,000 applications in August 2025,” the report said.
The report estimated that 7.9 million student loan borrowers entered delinquency in the first three quarters of 2025, with an average student loan debt of $34,000. In the first three quarters of 2025, borrowers with delinquent student loans saw their credit scores decrease by about 57 points. Within that group, 2 million borrowers with credit scores near-prime or better in 2024 saw a credit score decrease from 680 to 580, a 100 point drop on average.
“As a result of negative credit impacts, those 2 million borrowers will struggle more to access credit, are projected to pay thousands of dollars more on auto loans and personal loans, and will face new hurdles in securing housing and employment,” the report said.
Delinquency rates are also found to be higher for Black and Native Americans and borrowers with lower-income. The share of borrowers with past-due student loan payments is substantial in Southern states.
The eye-opening analysis relies on data from “the University of California Consumer Credit Panel (UC-CCP).
Read the report here: https://tcf.org/content/report/trumps-student-loan-delinquency-crisis-unmasked/
