Federal Student Aid (FSA) has posted a series of updates to its data center, the centralized online source for information about FSA programs and operations. This update refreshes quarterly application, disbursement, and loan portfolio reports to include data through June 30, 2026. It also provides updated data on forgiveness and discharge programs, such as borrower defense to repayment and the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, as well as information about Title IV institutions subject to heightened cash monitoring. Lastly, it refreshes the nonpayment rate data, which helps Title IV institutions understand the delinquency and default risks associated with their borrowers.
FSA proactively posts these reports to the FSA Data Center to help ensure consistency, increase accountability and transparency, and establish self-service opportunities for interested stakeholders. While not exhaustive, the information below provides a snapshot of key findings in our most-recent set of reports.
Today, the outstanding federal student loan portfolio includes 42.3 million recipients with federal student loans totaling more than $1.7 trillion, which represents a nearly four-percent dollar increase from June 2025. The William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan (Direct Loan) Program portfolio is nearly 91 percent of the outstanding loan portfolio, while the Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program portfolio represents nine percent, and Federal Perkins Loan (Perkins Loan) Program loans comprise less than one-sixth of one percent. The federally managed portfolio—which includes FFEL and Perkins program loans owned by the U.S. Department of Education (ED) and Direct Loans—is more than $1.64 trillion, representing more than 95 percent of the total portfolio.
ED is directly responsible for managing 40.5 million recipient accounts with outstanding loans totaling more than $1.64 trillion across the Direct Loan and ED-held FFEL portfolios.
Last fall (between October and December 2025) was the first time that many borrowers’ accounts could potentially fall into default (e.g., at least 360 days delinquent), following the extended pause on federal student loan payments. This quarter, the cumulative number of recipients in default increased by approximately 400,000 to more than 9.3 million. Their outstanding federal student loans total $234 billion or approximately 14 percent of the total $1.64 trillion federally managed portfolio as of June 2026.
More than 17.4 million recipients, or about 43 percent of the 40.5 million recipients, have at least one loan in a current repayment or delinquency status. This represents a slight increase since March 2026, as some borrowers enrolled in the Saving on a Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan began transitioning out of forbearance and into repayment. The loans associated with recipients in repayment total approximately $658 billion (or about 40 percent) of the total $1.64 trillion portfolio.
Since March 2026, the number of recipients in forbearance has decreased by about 400,000 to eight million recipients (or about one-fifth of recipients) with approximately $459 billion in federal student loans having at least one loan in forbearance status. FSA expects this number to continue decreasing as more SAVE borrowers exit forbearance.
More than 3.3 million recipients (or eight percent of recipients) have at least one loan in deferment, totaling $150 billion. Since most deferments are education-related, it is not unusual for many of these borrowers to also have at least one loan in an in-school status. About 13 percent of recipients have a loan in an in-school status, while four percent of recipients have a loan in grace. Collectively, the balances across in-school and in-grace statuses represent eight percent of Direct Loan and ED-held FFEL outstanding balances.
Despite the recent increase in default over the past year, many borrowers remain at risk of entering default in the coming months. The June 2026 reports show that more than 80 percent of ED-serviced recipients with loans in active repayment are current (on time or less than 31 days delinquent) on their federal student loan payments. Active repayment considers only those whose loans are in a repayment status and excludes borrowers in other statuses that would not require a monthly payment. However, this means that nearly 20 percent of recipients, or about 3.5 million recipients, are more than 30 days delinquent on their accounts. This includes approximately 1.5 million recipients in late-stage delinquency who are at risk of entering the defaulted portfolio in the next six months.
The active repayment 31+ delinquency rate is 15.7 percent by total dollar balance, compared to 12.7 percent in December 2019, the last quarter prior to the federal student loan payment pause. December 2019 was the tail end of a multi-year decline in delinquency rates, primarily due to increasing portfolio quality and potentially due–in a lesser way—to an improving economy.
In July 2025, ED first posted nonpayment rate data, which provides the percentage of Direct Loan borrowers, on an institutional basis, who entered repayment between January 2020 and May 2025 and whose federal student loans were more than 90 days delinquent. ED initially updated this data in February and May 2026, and this release includes updated data on this cohort of borrowers as of August 2026. The newly released nonpayment rate data shows that approximately 2,100 institutions have nonpayment rates at or exceeding 25 percent, an increase of approximately 100 institutions since the May 2026 report. Though the nonpayment rate differs from the official cohort default rate (CDR) calculation, the nonpayment rate can help provide Title IV institutions insight into their repayment portfolio until the CDR calculation is no longer affected by the COVID-19 pandemic-related flexibilities.
Approximately 13 million Direct Loan and ED-serviced FFEL borrowers in repayment, deferment, or forbearance statuses are enrolled in an income-driven repayment (IDR) plan. This includes SAVE borrowers who remained in a nonpayment status as of June 2026. While SAVE enrollment has declined by almost 1.2 million borrowers, many borrowers exiting SAVE are enrolling in other IDR plans. For example, Pay-As-You-Earn (PAYE) enrollment increased from 1.3 million to 1.6 million, and Income-Based Repayment (IBR) enrollment increased from three million to four million in the past year. Enrollment reporting in the new IDR plan—the Repayment Assistance Plan (RAP), which was introduced in July 2026—will be available next quarter. In terms of borrowers, approximately 45 percent of the ED-serviced repayment plan population is in an IDR plan (based on unduplicated borrowers in repayment, deferment, and forbearance).
Over the last year, the total of ED-serviced (Direct Loan and ED-serviced FFEL) balances in IDR plans increased from $740 billion to $792 billion. In terms of dollars (total balance), 62 percent of the ED-serviced (Direct Loan and ED-serviced FFEL) repayment plan universe is in an IDR plan, an increase from 56 percent in June 2025. The increase is due, in part, to borrowers in non-IDR plans moving to default in recent months.
To accurately interpret the data, please note the following:
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While student loans are traditionally highly cyclical in nature, recent data is not comparable to prior periods due to the three-and-a-half-year federal student loan payment pause coupled with the implementation of programs, such as the on-ramp and Fresh Start.
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In the portfolio reports, recipient counts are based at the loan level. For that reason, recipients may be counted multiple times across varying loan statuses. For example, a recipient with one loan in deferment and one loan in forbearance would be counted once in each category. A recipient with two loans in the same status would be counted only once in that category.
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Active repayment includes all current and delinquent borrowers whose accounts are currently serviced by federal loan servicers. Borrowers with loans in a grace, in-school, deferment, forbearance, bankruptcy, or disability status are not expected to make payments and are not included in this calculation.
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In the loan and grant reports, the first worksheet of the workbook shows the number of recipients and disbursements for the specified quarter, while the second tab shows the cumulative, award-year-to-date activity. The second worksheet of the award year’s fourth quarter report will show data for the full award year. Since the information is reported by specific loan type or grant program, a unique grant or loan recipient count is not available by school. Please note that since loan and grant reports are generally run shortly after the quarter’s end, initial runs often underreport activity because of institutions’ reporting delays and activity that occurs for the award year after the report run date (for example, summer disbursements).
FSA launched the data center in 2009 to increase government transparency by proactively posting useful information for businesses, institutions, the media, and individuals.