Student loan borrowing surges among wealthy

The rate of student loan borrowing in the last 20 years increased faster among affluent families than any other income group, according to a new study.

Using new government data, the Pew Research Center found half of graduates in 2012 from high-income families borrowed money to pay for college. Twenty years earlier, only about a quarter of that demographic took out loans. 

{mosads}Students fomr low-income families are still the most likely to graduate with student debt.  

Sixty-seven percent of students from low-income households took out loans in 1992-1993, a figure that rose to 77 percent in 2012. 

Nearly 70 percent of new college students in 2012, a record share, took out student loans, Pew found.

The average cumulative student debt rose from $12,434 to $26,885 over the last two decades.

More students whose parents graduated from college have been more likely to apply for college loans, Pew found. About 60 percent of students from the class of 2011-2012 whose parents graduated, too, left with some student debt.

Pew’s analysis was based on information collected for the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study.