Nearly a Quarter of Federal Student Loan Borrowers May Be Eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness
In the fall of 2021, the U.S. Department of Education announced changes to the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program to make it more accessible to federal student loan borrowers. One major change was that federal borrowers can get credit for their student loan payments made on previously ineligible plans — as long as they file the required paperwork by Oct. 31, 2022.
The Department of Education estimates that this PSLF limited waiver opportunity will help more than 550,000 borrowers who had already consolidated their loans in their progress toward forgiveness and grant the average borrower an additional 23 payments toward their total requirement of 120 payments.
To understand the full impact these PSLF changes will have on borrowers, Student Loan Hero researchers collected data from the Education Department, U.S. Census Bureau and the Federal Reserve to estimate how many workers with federal student loans might now be eligible for forgiveness through PSLF on a state-by-state basis.
Key findings
- An estimated 9.3 million employees from PSLF-eligible organizations in the 50 states and District of Columbia are potentially eligible to have their federal student loans forgiven. This represents 22.9% of federal student borrowers.
- More than half of borrowers (52.5%) in Alaska may be eligible for PSLF — the highest proportion of any state. Three other places may have at least 40% of federal borrowers who are potentially eligible: Hawaii (48.2%), Wyoming (42.1%) and the District of Columbia (41.5%).
- Georgia has the smallest percentage of potentially eligible borrowers at 16.5%. Just ahead of Georgia are Louisiana (17.2%) and Nevada (17.5%).
- California could have the most student debt eligible for forgiveness at a total of $38.8 billion, followed by New York ($24.8 billion) and Texas ($22.0 billion).
Estimated 9.3 million employees could have their student loans forgiven
More than 40.7 million federal student loan borrowers across the U.S. hold an estimated $1.71 trillion in education debt. (An additional 4.4 million borrowers live outside the 50 states or didn’t report their locations.) While not every borrower will qualify for PSLF, borrowers who work at a nonprofit organization or a U.S. federal, state, local or tribal government might. Military service also qualifies, and payments now count even if the borrower paused them while on active duty.
Note: While our data includes most PSLF-eligible organizations, we couldn’t find separate data on tribal organizations. However, our government counts do include student loan borrowers in the military.
According to our study, we found that 9.3 million borrowers from PSLF-eligible organizations in the 50 states and District of Columbia are potentially eligible to have their federal student loans forgiven. This represents nearly one-quarter (22.9%) of federal student borrowers.
| Percentage of federal student borrowers in the 50 states and District of Columbia who may be eligible for PSLF | |
|---|---|
| Number of student borrowers | 40,732,100 |
| Estimated number of PSLF-eligible borrowers | 9,312,213 |
| Estimated percentage of borrowers who are eligible | 22.9% |
| Source: Student Loan Hero analysis of U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve data. Note: An additional 4.4 million borrowers live outside the 50 states or didn’t report their locations. | |
Along with working at an eligible workplace, you must make at least 120 on-time payments to qualify for PSLF. While the program previously required that you make these payments on an income-driven plan, you can now get credit for payments made on any plan, as long as you file your PSLF forms by Oct. 31, 2022.
What’s more, you can get credit for the entire period of emergency forbearance put in place as a response to the COVID-19 pandemic, even if you haven’t made any payments during this time. However, you’re not going to get PSLF automatically — you’ll still need to submit your PSLF form every year and communicate with your loan servicer to ensure that you’re on track.
More than half of borrowers in Alaska could be eligible for PSLF
When we broke down the data by state, we found that some states had a high proportion of potentially PSLF-eligible borrowers to all student loan borrowers.
Alaska had the highest proportion, with more than half of borrowers (52.5%) in Alaska potentially eligible for PSLF. In total, Alaska has an estimated 34,994 potentially eligible borrowers out of its 66,600 total federal student loan borrowers.
These borrowers were fairly evenly spread out among nonprofits and local, state and federal government organizations. About 8,000 of these borrowers work at a nonprofit or in local government, for instance, while about 8,800 work in state government and about 9,800 work in the federal government.
That group of nearly 35,000 borrowers is a relatively small amount of Alaska’s total working population at 1.8%. Still, it does suggest that a significant number of federal student loan borrowers there end up working in a nonprofit or governmental organization.
| States with the largest percentage of federal student loan borrowers who may be eligible for PSLF | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | State | Percentage of student loan borrowers potentially eligible for PSLF | Rank | State | Percentage of student loan borrowers potentially eligible for PSLF |
| 1 | Alaska | 52.5% | 6 | North Dakota | 33.7% |
| 2 | Hawaii | 48.2% | 7 | Virginia | 33.1% |
| 3 | Wyoming | 42.1% | 8 | Washington | 32.9% |
| 4 | District of Columbia | 41.5% | 9 | Maryland | 32.7% |
| 5 | Vermont | 34.5% | 10 | New Mexico | 32.1% |
| Source: Student Loan Hero analysis of U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve data. Note: Based on state of resident, not state of employment. | |||||
We also found three other places where at least 40% of borrowers are potentially eligible: Hawaii (48.2%), Wyoming (42.1%) and the District of Columbia (41.5%). In Hawaii alone, that 48.2% represents 57,628 borrowers who could potentially get their loan balance forgiven from the PSLF program. This group makes up 1.6% of all workers in Hawaii.
Like Alaska, the largest group of PSLF-eligible borrowers eligible borrowers in Hawaii work in the federal government at 19,926. A much smaller number are local government employees, at just 6,244.
This pattern is not the same for all states, however. In Michigan, for example, 119,787 borrowers work at nonprofits, while the federal government employs only 18,710.
While the workplaces may vary, any nonprofit or government organization employees with federal student loans are potentially eligible for PSLF.
Georgia has the fewest potentially PSLF-eligible borrowers
On the flip side, Georgia had the lowest proportion of borrowers who might be eligible for PSLF at 16.5%. While the proportion is lower than other states, it represents a fairly large number of borrowers: 265,190 out of a total of more than 1.6 million. That group represents 1.3% of workers in the whole state.
| States with the smallest percentage of federal student loan borrowers who may be eligible for PSLF | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | State | Percentage of student loan borrowers potentially eligible for PSLF | Rank | State | Percentage of student loan borrowers potentially eligible for PSLF |
| 1 | Georgia | 16.5% | 6 | Florida | 18.4% |
| 2 | Louisiana | 17.2% | 7 | Indiana | 18.5% |
| 3 | Nevada | 17.5% | 8 | South Carolina | 18.7% |
| 4 | Ohio | 18.2% | 8 | Michigan | 18.7% |
| 4 | Mississippi | 18.2% | 10 | Texas | 18.8% |
| Source: Student Loan Hero analysis of U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve data. Note: Based on state of resident, not state of employment. | |||||
Louisiana and Nevada also had relatively low proportions of PSLF-eligible borrowers to all student loan borrowers at 17.2% and 17.5%, respectively. But compared with Alaska, Hawaii and Wyoming, these states have greater numbers of total student loan borrowers: 341,300 in Nevada, and 636,800 in Louisiana.
However, these groups are still a small minority compared to the total number of workers in the state. The total number of PSLF-eligible workers in Louisiana represents just 1.2% of the total population, while the total number in Nevada makes up just 0.7% — lowest in the U.S.
Full rankings
| Percentage of student loan borrowers who may be eligible for PSLF | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | State | Total potentially eligible employees (estimated) | Total federal student borrowers (actual) | Percentage of student loan borrowers potentially eligible for PSLF |
| 1 | Alaska | 34,994 | 66,600 | 52.5% |
| 2 | Hawaii | 57,628 | 119,500 | 48.2% |
| 3 | Wyoming | 22,260 | 52,900 | 42.1% |
| 4 | District of Columbia | 48,065 | 115,900 | 41.5% |
| 5 | Vermont | 26,002 | 75,300 | 34.5% |
| 6 | North Dakota | 28,606 | 84,800 | 33.7% |
| 7 | Virginia | 350,235 | 1,059,400 | 33.1% |
| 8 | Washington | 254,824 | 775,300 | 32.9% |
| 9 | Maryland | 268,573 | 820,100 | 32.7% |
| 10 | New Mexico | 72,220 | 225,000 | 32.1% |
| 11 | Montana | 37,396 | 123,700 | 30.2% |
| 12 | Utah | 88,338 | 302,200 | 29.2% |
| 13 | Massachusetts | 249,350 | 876,400 | 28.5% |
| 14 | California | 1,046,331 | 3,852,400 | 27.2% |
| 15 | New York | 649,608 | 2,404,100 | 27.0% |
| 16 | Nebraska | 65,102 | 241,900 | 26.9% |
| 17 | South Dakota | 30,114 | 112,700 | 26.7% |
| 18 | Maine | 48,104 | 182,700 | 26.3% |
| 19 | New Hampshire | 47,934 | 185,900 | 25.8% |
| 20 | Kansas | 95,806 | 376,200 | 25.5% |
| 21 | Oregon | 134,732 | 535,800 | 25.1% |
| 22 | Rhode Island | 34,920 | 139,700 | 25.0% |
| 23 | Wisconsin | 176,816 | 713,200 | 24.8% |
| 24 | Minnesota | 190,631 | 774,100 | 24.6% |
| 25 | Colorado | 184,100 | 759,400 | 24.2% |
| 26 | North Carolina | 297,837 | 1,268,400 | 23.5% |
| 27 | Connecticut | 111,622 | 482,300 | 23.1% |
| 27 | Delaware | 28,534 | 123,400 | 23.1% |
| 27 | Idaho | 49,582 | 214,400 | 23.1% |
| 30 | Oklahoma | 109,352 | 478,100 | 22.9% |
| 31 | Illinois | 361,196 | 1,598,200 | 22.6% |
| 31 | Iowa | 96,468 | 426,000 | 22.6% |
| 33 | West Virginia | 50,260 | 222,900 | 22.5% |
| 34 | Missouri | 175,195 | 819,200 | 21.4% |
| 35 | Alabama | 126,720 | 618,400 | 20.5% |
| 35 | Arizona | 177,872 | 868,400 | 20.5% |
| 37 | New Jersey | 237,814 | 1,165,000 | 20.4% |
| 37 | Tennessee | 172,018 | 843,900 | 20.4% |
| 39 | Pennsylvania | 356,455 | 1,779,400 | 20.0% |
| 40 | Arkansas | 75,691 | 381,700 | 19.8% |
| 41 | Kentucky | 113,126 | 589,700 | 19.2% |
| 42 | Texas | 664,081 | 3,535,600 | 18.8% |
| 43 | Michigan | 260,863 | 1,392,200 | 18.7% |
| 43 | South Carolina | 133,166 | 712,500 | 18.7% |
| 45 | Indiana | 165,278 | 892,600 | 18.5% |
| 46 | Florida | 472,620 | 2,562,200 | 18.4% |
| 47 | Mississippi | 78,245 | 431,000 | 18.2% |
| 47 | Ohio | 320,933 | 1,765,200 | 18.2% |
| 49 | Nevada | 59,892 | 341,300 | 17.5% |
| 50 | Louisiana | 109,514 | 636,800 | 17.2% |
| 51 | Georgia | 265,190 | 1,608,100 | 16.5% |
| Source: Student Loan Hero analysis of U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve data. Note: Based on state of resident, not state of employment. Total borrowers are as of June 30, 2021. | ||||
By the numbers: State breakdown of estimated borrowers by employment type
| Estimated number of student loan borrowers who could be eligible for PSLF | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| State | Nonprofit, charitable or tax-exempt organizations employees | Local government employees | State government employees | Federal government employees | Total employees |
| Alabama | 37,673 | 33,695 | 32,777 | 22,575 | 126,720 |
| Alaska | 8,414 | 7,973 | 8,762 | 9,845 | 34,994 |
| Arizona | 55,133 | 55,700 | 40,778 | 26,261 | 177,872 |
| Arkansas | 24,408 | 16,741 | 26,292 | 8,250 | 75,691 |
| California | 332,852 | 387,827 | 209,070 | 116,582 | 1,046,331 |
| Colorado | 63,858 | 55,758 | 33,461 | 31,023 | 184,100 |
| Connecticut | 47,482 | 36,064 | 20,247 | 7,829 | 111,622 |
| Delaware | 10,426 | 3,828 | 10,505 | 3,775 | 28,534 |
| District of Columbia | 21,352 | 4,847 | 2,521 | 19,345 | 48,065 |
| Florida | 158,102 | 167,185 | 80,099 | 67,234 | 472,620 |
| Georgia | 76,519 | 81,419 | 60,943 | 46,309 | 265,190 |
| Hawaii | 13,533 | 6,244 | 17,925 | 19,926 | 57,628 |
| Idaho | 16,483 | 13,848 | 12,311 | 6,940 | 49,582 |
| Illinois | 154,731 | 113,051 | 62,209 | 31,205 | 361,196 |
| Indiana | 76,678 | 43,792 | 31,770 | 13,038 | 165,278 |
| Iowa | 37,139 | 27,497 | 25,106 | 6,726 | 96,468 |
| Kansas | 30,429 | 28,388 | 23,534 | 13,455 | 95,806 |
| Kentucky | 38,970 | 27,171 | 32,820 | 14,165 | 113,126 |
| Louisiana | 31,518 | 32,569 | 30,626 | 14,801 | 109,514 |
| Maine | 23,661 | 12,618 | 7,570 | 4,255 | 48,104 |
| Maryland | 82,500 | 58,918 | 34,816 | 92,339 | 268,573 |
| Massachusetts | 129,255 | 67,731 | 35,283 | 17,081 | 249,350 |
| Michigan | 119,787 | 68,014 | 54,352 | 18,710 | 260,863 |
| Minnesota | 90,261 | 55,206 | 33,521 | 11,643 | 190,631 |
| Mississippi | 18,178 | 17,339 | 30,288 | 12,440 | 78,245 |
| Missouri | 78,630 | 42,474 | 32,603 | 21,488 | 175,195 |
| Montana | 12,428 | 10,108 | 9,003 | 5,857 | 37,396 |
| Nebraska | 26,014 | 18,762 | 13,605 | 6,721 | 65,102 |
| Nevada | 12,156 | 23,987 | 13,097 | 10,652 | 59,892 |
| New Hampshire | 22,731 | 14,012 | 6,578 | 4,613 | 47,934 |
| New Jersey | 81,290 | 85,559 | 49,682 | 21,283 | 237,814 |
| New Mexico | 17,716 | 18,463 | 19,340 | 16,701 | 72,220 |
| New York | 263,194 | 232,381 | 108,424 | 45,609 | 649,608 |
| North Carolina | 93,990 | 71,308 | 87,929 | 44,610 | 297,837 |
| North Dakota | 10,383 | 7,692 | 5,806 | 4,725 | 28,606 |
| Ohio | 140,699 | 99,839 | 51,370 | 29,025 | 320,933 |
| Oklahoma | 30,560 | 23,551 | 34,040 | 21,201 | 109,352 |
| Oregon | 53,910 | 39,568 | 29,732 | 11,522 | 134,732 |
| Pennsylvania | 190,990 | 82,093 | 51,459 | 31,913 | 356,455 |
| Rhode Island | 15,764 | 9,178 | 5,726 | 4,252 | 34,920 |
| South Carolina | 37,869 | 33,094 | 41,892 | 20,311 | 133,166 |
| South Dakota | 12,318 | 8,124 | 5,354 | 4,318 | 30,114 |
| Tennessee | 61,073 | 54,124 | 33,232 | 23,589 | 172,018 |
| Texas | 190,640 | 217,966 | 160,665 | 94,810 | 664,081 |
| Utah | 28,473 | 23,777 | 23,844 | 12,244 | 88,338 |
| Vermont | 13,634 | 6,289 | 4,264 | 1,815 | 26,002 |
| Virginia | 93,154 | 88,510 | 48,224 | 120,347 | 350,235 |
| Washington | 83,964 | 68,124 | 63,077 | 39,659 | 254,824 |
| West Virginia | 14,232 | 12,968 | 15,002 | 8,058 | 50,260 |
| Wisconsin | 73,918 | 54,344 | 37,805 | 10,749 | 176,816 |
| Wyoming | 5,041 | 7,848 | 6,266 | 3,105 | 22,260 |
| Source: Student Loan Hero analysis of U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve data. Note: Based on state of resident, not state of employment. | |||||
California could see $38.8 billion in student loan debt eligible for forgiveness
If all the eligible borrowers pursue loan forgiveness through PSLF, most states could see a total of more than $1 billion in forgiven student loan debt. That amount is highest in California, which has a statewide debt of $38.8 billion spread out among more than 1 million borrowers that could be eligible for forgiveness.
New York has the second-highest amount at $24.8 billion among more than 649,000 borrowers, and Texas has the third-highest at $22 billion among about 664,000 borrowers.
States with smaller populations of student loan borrowers will unsurprisingly see smaller amounts of debt wiped out. Wyoming, for instance, has just over 22,000 potentially eligible borrowers, leading to an implied statewide debt eligible for forgiveness of about $673 million; North Dakota has 28,606 eligible borrowers and could see a total of about $843 million in student loan debt forgiven in its state.
| Estimated amount of debt eligible for PSLF | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rank | State | Implied statewide debt eligible for forgiveness (billions) | Rank | State | Implied statewide debt eligible for forgiveness (billions) |
| 1 | California | $38.8 | 27 | Louisiana | $3.8 |
| 2 | New York | $24.8 | 28 | Kentucky | $3.7 |
| 3 | Texas | $22.0 | 29 | Oklahoma | $3.5 |
| 4 | Florida | $18.2 | 30 | Kansas | $3.2 |
| 5 | Virginia | $13.9 | 31 | Iowa | $3.0 |
| 6 | Illinois | $13.8 | 32 | Mississippi | $2.9 |
| 7 | Pennsylvania | $12.8 | 32 | Utah | $2.9 |
| 8 | Maryland | $11.6 | 34 | District of Columbia | $2.7 |
| 9 | North Carolina | $11.3 | 35 | Arkansas | $2.5 |
| 10 | Ohio | $11.2 | 35 | New Mexico | $2.5 |
| 11 | Georgia | $11.1 | 37 | Hawaii | $2.1 |
| 12 | Michigan | $9.5 | 37 | Nebraska | $2.1 |
| 13 | Washington | $9.1 | 39 | Nevada | $2.0 |
| 14 | Massachusetts | $8.6 | 40 | New Hampshire | $1.7 |
| 15 | New Jersey | $8.5 | 41 | Idaho | $1.6 |
| 16 | Colorado | $6.8 | 41 | West Virginia | $1.6 |
| 17 | Minnesota | $6.5 | 41 | Maine | $1.6 |
| 18 | Arizona | $6.3 | 44 | Montana | $1.3 |
| 18 | Tennessee | $6.3 | 45 | Alaska | $1.2 |
| 20 | Missouri | $6.2 | 46 | Rhode Island | $1.1 |
| 21 | Wisconsin | $5.7 | 46 | Delaware | $1.1 |
| 22 | Indiana | $5.5 | 48 | Vermont | $1.0 |
| 23 | South Carolina | $5.2 | 48 | South Dakota | $1.0 |
| 24 | Oregon | $5.0 | 50 | North Dakota | $0.8 |
| 25 | Alabama | $4.7 | 51 | Wyoming | $0.7 |
| 26 | Connecticut | $4.0 | |||
| Source: Student Loan Hero analysis of U.S. Department of Education, U.S. Census Bureau and Federal Reserve data. Note: Based on state of resident, not state of employment. | |||||
How to pursue Public Service Loan Forgiveness
While the PSLF program has had a notoriously low acceptance rate in years past, recent reforms may make it more accessible for borrowers. However, it’s crucial to file your paperwork before the end of October 2022 if you want to get credit for payments made on a previously ineligible repayment plan.
This means kicking off the process with the PSLF Help Tool. You’ll also need to submit the PSLF certification and application form annually, as well as any time you change employers. You’ll also submit this form when you’ve made your 120 required payments.
Along with filling out this documentation, it’s worth reading up on the requirements of the PSLF program to ensure you’re fulfilling them. Keep in contact with your loan servicer to ensure you’re on track — in addition, note that PSLF applicants typically work with FedLoan Servicing, but this may change in December 2022 when this servicer’s contract ends.
If you decide to stop working in public service before you’ve made your 120 student loan payments, you’ll likely no longer qualify for the PSLF program. However, it could be worth researching your options for other loan forgiveness programs if you can qualify. Plus, you can search through our student loan repayment assistance programs database to see if any could help you pay off your student loans.
Student Loan Hero analysts estimated the number of people in each state and the District of Columbia who may be eligible for Public Service Loan Forgiveness by using data or microdata from the:
- U.S. Department of Education
- Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances
- U.S. Census Bureau 2019 American Community Survey, five-year estimates
Using U.S. Census microdata, researchers created a count of people residing in each state who work in an eligible industry among two subsets: those who have at least a bachelor’s degree and those who have some college experience (including associate degrees).
Eligible industries are:
- Nonprofit, charitable or tax-exempt organizations
- Local government
- State government
- Federal government
Active-duty military members are included within the government figures. Tribal government employees are also eligible for PSLF, but data wasn’t available to include them in this study.
We estimated the number of the two categories of workers — bachelor’s or some college — who have student debt by multiplying them by the percentage of households with respondents who have either some college or at least a bachelor’s who reported active student debt.
Finally, researchers added these two categories of workers to reach the final estimate of potentially eligible borrowers. We then compared that number to federal loan borrowers reported by the Education Department in each state to determine the percentage who may be eligible.
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