Share of Residents with Debt in Collections and Share of Student Loan Debt in Default

Data on County-Level Overall Debt from the Urban Institute's Data catalog (https://apps.urban.org/features/debt-interactive-map/?type=overall&variable=totcoll&state=27&county=27123). This dataset contains information derived from a random sample of deidentified, consumer-level records from a major credit bureau. The credit bureau data do not include information about race, so the white and people of color metrics are based on the racial makeup of zip codes within the geographic area (nation, state, county).

Student loan debt is considered to be in default when required payments have not been made for a specified period – usually 270 days for federal loans. This indicator is published by Urban Institute for their Debt in America project. Previous indicator data from 2019 was for student loan debt in collections, but no federal student loans were referred for collection from March 2020 until May 2025, including those in default, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.