As seen in the chart below, the red line indicates that the portion of 25-year olds with student debt has grown from 25% in 2003 to 43% in 2012–meaning an increasing portion of young adults are choosing to “bring forward” expected future earnings to pay for a college degree.
Furthermore, the black line on the chart shows that not only is the share of 25 year olds with student debt expanding, the average student loan balance is also rising–almost doubling to $20,326 in 2012 from $10,649 in 2003.
