Student loans held within the UK broken down by gender and ethnicity

Release date:
11 July 2022

FOI Reference: FOI/2022/4251

You asked

I'm looking for statistics on student loan debt in the UK and haven't been able to find what I'm looking for via searching published data.

In brief I'm looking for data that shows who holds student loan debt in the UK and how it breaks down by gender and ethnicity.

More specifically, I'm hoping you can provide the following information/data/statistics to me, ideally in word document format:

  • Currently, overall, how much of the student loan debt that exists belongs to women vs men in the UK?  (What is this in percentage terms??

  • How is this broken down by gender AND ethnicity ie white, Black, Asian women & White, Black, Asian men

  • What percentage of men vs women take out student loans in the UK?

  • What is the average amount of student loan debt per woman and per man? Pre and post 2012 reforms?

  • How does this break down by gender and ethnicity?

    • mean total borrowed by White, black Asian women and White, Black, Asian men?
    • mean total outstanding debt by White, black Asian women and White, Black, Asian men?

  • How long does it take to pay off student loan debt for men and women in the UK? pre and post 2012 reforms (forecast data is fine where actual data doesn't' exist)

  • How does this breakdown by gender AND ethnicity – as above?

  • How many women / women with bachelor's degrees earn over the re-payment threshold? How many men do?

  • How does this breakdown by gender and ethnicity? -as above

  • How much do women with degrees earn, how does this compare to men

  • How does this breakdown by gender and ethnicity? As above.

We said

Thank you for your request.

We do not hold the data to be able to respond to your request. We believe your request is better placed with the Department for Education; they can be contacted via the following form: Contact us: Department for Education.

Also, you may find that Student Loans England and Student Loans Wales may hold information that can assist you with your queries.

Student Loans England can be contacted on foirequests@slc.co.uk and Student Loans Wales can be contacted on emawales@slc.co.uk.

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