> ~$45,000 in student loan debt. And this is on the LOWER end of debt $45,000 is well above the average student loan debt even as of 2021, which is variously r

> ~$45,000 in student loan debt. And this is on the LOWER end of debt $45,000 is well above the average student loan debt even as of 2021, which is variously reported as $35-40k (but see $30k, below). The median debt amount is substantially lower (~1/2), but it doesn't fit the narrative so it's rarely reported. What's unclear to me is whether these numbers are for all outstanding debt, or for debts at graduation. This site says the 2021 average debt at graduation is $36k, https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-debt-by-year https://educationdata.org/average-student-loan-debt-by-year ($30k at https://thecollegeinvestor.com/33643/average-student-loan-monthly-payment/ https://thecollegeinvestor.com/33643/average-student-loan-mo...). But this site says the median outstanding debt amount for all people with student loans is $20-25k, https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2021-economic-well-being-of-us-households-in-2020-student-loans.htm https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/2021-economic-we... That's very confusing, especially considering that [1] and [2] give $17k and $19k, respectively, for the median. I can't square these numbers unless, perhaps, it's the case that people even at the lower end aren't paying down principal and are accumulating interest debt. (EDIT: The "all outstanding" median Fed figure makes more sense when you realize that it excludes those who managed to pay off their loans entirely, and so it will have a long tail of very high debt students, the very same students inflating the average to begin with, and the ones most likely to be stuck in a debt trap.) [1] https://thecollegeinvestor.com/33643/average-student-loan-monthly-payment/ https://thecollegeinvestor.com/33643/average-student-loan-mo... [2] https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-student-loan-debt https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-student-loan-debt