The Surge in Student Loan Delinquencies

This chart from a new Federal Reserve Bank of New York paper(.pdf) on household credit and debt has been getting a lot of attention for reasons that should be obvious after just a glance.

A Wall Street Journal report yesterday adds the following context:

According to the report, 35% of people under 30 who have student loans were at least 90 days late on their payments at the end of last year, up from 26% in 2008 and 21% at the end of 2004.
…
Amplifying the burden: a growing number of young adults are borrowers. All told, 43% of 25-year-olds had student debt in the fourth quarter of 2012, up from about 33% in the fourth quarter of 2008.

If you were wondering, the latest data from the Labor Department shows 68.4 percent of 2011 high school graduates were enrolled in colleges or universities, down slightly from the record high of 70.1 percent in 2009.