The national student loan default rate rose slightly from 0% to .4% – after remaining at 0% for the past three years.
The Department of Education (the Department) released their FY 2023 national default briefing and, as expected, the FY 2023 cohort default rates were affected by the pause on federal student loan payments that began in March 2020. During the pause, borrowers with ED-held loans were not required to make payments and no borrowers with ED-held loans entered default.
The cohort default rate was calculated by using the cohort of student loan borrowers who entered repayment on their William D. Ford Federal Direct Loan Program or Federal Family Education Loan (FFEL) Program loans between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2023, and who defaulted between October 1, 2022, and September 30, 2025.
All institutions are encouraged to review their nonrepayment rate, 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. Newly released nonpayment rate data shows that approximately 1,800 institutions have nonpayment rates at or exceeding 25 percent.
Questions about the briefing can be directed via email to fsa.schools.default.management@ed.gov
