Most Student Loan Borrowers Say They’ve Postponed Major Life Events Due to Debt: Gallup

Most student loan borrowers say they’ve put off important life events because of their debt, according to a recent study.

Lumina-Gallup Foundation 2024 State of Higher Education to studyreleased Wednesday found that 71% of borrowers said they needed to postpone at least one major life event because of their student loans.

Respondents were more likely to list buying a house, buying a car and moving out of their parents’ house as life events that were put on hold.

Just under 30 percent said they delayed buying a home, 28 percent said they delayed buying a car and 22 percent said they delayed moving, according to the survey. Around 20% said they needed to postpone creating their own business, 15% said they waited to have children and 13% postponed getting married.

Gallup noted that delay rates for these major life events were similar across demographic groups. Men were more likely than women to say that loans slowed them down, with 76 percent of men saying this compared to 64 percent of women.

The study also found that even those with smaller student loans were slow to initiate major life events. About 63 percent of those with less than $10,000 in student loans said they delayed important events in their lives.

Nearly all respondents with more than $60,000 in student loans said they had postponed major purchases and events. Ninety-eight percent of respondents who had between $60,000 and $74,999 or more than $75,000 in student loan debt said they delayed major life events, according to the survey.

The study comes as President Biden continues his efforts to alleviate student loan debt. The Biden administration has already distributed $153 billion in student debt relief, much of it going to those on income-based repayment plans, borrowers with disabilities and people defrauded by their schools.

The Lumina-Gallup study was conducted last year from October 9 to November. 16 through a web survey among 14,032 current and prospective college students ages 18 to 59.