More than 40 percent of Americans who combined owe roughly $200 billion in federal student loans are not making payments or have fallen behind, The Wall Street Journal reports.
The report said the figures are the "fallout" of a decade of accelerated borrowing as college, university and trade school enrollment surged.
The quarterly snapshot of the U.S. Education Department's $1.2 trillion student loan portfolio revealed more than 43 percent of the 22 million Americans with loans were not making payments as of Jan. 1, the report says. Within that group, 3.6 million were in default on $56 million in debt....