Chart: Older Black households are much more likely than white or Hispanic households to have education debt: Percentage of households ages 55–64 with education loan debt, by race and ethnicity, 1992 and 2019

Figure 3H

Older Black households are much more likely than white or Hispanic households to have education debt: Percentage of households ages 55–64 with education loan debt, by race and ethnicity, 1992 and 2019

Share of households with education loan debt	White	Black	Hispanic
1992	3.2%	3.6%	0.2%
2019	11.5%	18.4%	7.3%

ChartData Download data

Note: In the Survey of Consumer Finances, age and other household characteristics are based on the reference person, defined as the individual for a single householder, the male in a mixed-sex couple, and the older person in a same-sex couple.

Source: Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis (SCEPA) analysis of Survey of Consumer Finances microdata (Federal Reserve 2022a).

This chart appears in:

Chapter 3. Risk

Previous chart: « Older Black and Hispanic working households were stretched thin before the COVID-19 pandemic and recession hit: Share of working households ages 55–64 that are financially fragile, by race and ethnicity, 1992–2018

Next chart: Older workers experienced higher unemployment than mid-career workers in the pandemic recession: Percentage-point difference in average unemployment rate between older workers (age 55+) and mid-career workers (ages 35–54), 1975–2020 recessions »