Because students borrow much more for graduate school than for their undergraduate studies, much of the outstanding student debt is owed by people with relatively high incomes. In 2013, 47 percent of the outstanding student debt was held by households in the top quarter of the income distribution and only 11 percent was held by those in the lowest income quartile. This is not about the family backgrounds of these borrowers, but about where they ended up after they completed their education.
Explore more in Student Debt: Rhetoric and Realities of Higher Education Financing
Sandy Baum 