About 1 in 4 adults who had to make a student loan payment fell short. In the Federal Reserve’s October 2025 survey, 26.5% of borrowers who were required to pay said they did not make the full required payment in the previous month.
Among all adults with outstanding student loans, for their own education or someone else’s, 44.8% were not required to make payments, 40.6% paid in full and 14.7% paid less than required or nothing. Of those who paid in full, 19.7% said they had difficulty making student loan payments at some point in the past 12 months. Overall, 15.7% of adults had student loans.
Not having enough money was the most common reason. Of borrowers who were behind or struggled to pay, 47.8% said their income was less than their expenses and 36.3% had unexpected expenses. 15.5% said they did not want to make payments.
Collection actions were also common in this group. 23.4% said their loans had been sent to a debt collector in the past 12 months, and 10.5% had a federal tax refund withheld.
Why missed payments
Respondents could pick more than one reason, so shares add up to more than 100%. This question and the collection question were asked of the 448 borrowers who either did not pay in full last month or paid in full but had difficulty paying in the past 12 months.
| Reason | Share |
|---|---|
| My income was less than my expenses | 47.8% |
| I had unexpected expenses | 36.3% |
| I had an unexpected drop in income | 20.4% |
| I didn’t want to make payments | 15.5% |
| I didn’t know I needed to make payments | 8.2% |
| I didn’t know how to make payments | 5.3% |
| None of the above | 12.2% |
Collection actions
| Collection action in past 12 months | Share |
|---|---|
| Loans sent to a debt collector | 23.4% |
| Federal tax refund withheld | 10.5% |
| Wages garnished | 6.9% |
| Social Security benefits withheld | 5.4% |
Who was behind
Share of borrowers required to pay who did not make the full payment, by the respondent’s age and highest education. Education refers to the respondent, not necessarily the person whose schooling the loan paid for. Smaller groups have wider margins of error.
| Group | Behind on payments | Respondents |
|---|---|---|
| Age 18–24 | 37.5% | 106 |
| Age 25–34 | 24.8% | 324 |
| Age 35–44 | 27.5% | 248 |
| Age 45–54 | 26.3% | 175 |
| Age 55+ | 21.8% | 244 |
| High school or less | 46.2% | 117 |
| Some college, no degree | 39.3% | 157 |
| Associate degree or certificate | 45.2% | 141 |
| Bachelor’s degree | 15.4% | 429 |
| Graduate or professional degree | 11.9% | 253 |
About the survey
The Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) asks a national sample of adults about their finances. The 2025 survey had 12,934 respondents and was conducted in October 2025. We computed the figures from the Fed’s public microdata using its survey weights; the shares are estimates for U.S. adults. “Last month” means the month before the respondent took the survey. Answers are self-reported and do not distinguish federal from private loans.
Source
Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking 2025, public data file and codebook, downloaded October 27, 2026; questions SL23 to SL26, weighted with the survey weight. Calculations by My Credit Guide. Our table is available under CC BY 4.0. Credit "My Credit Guide (mycreditguide.org)".
Steven Reynolds, "Student Loan Missed Payments: Fed Survey Results," My Credit Guide, October 27, 2026, https://mycreditguide.org/data/student-loan-missed-payments/.