In July 2015, along with research company Qualtrics, Credit Karma surveyed 500 Millennials (ages 18-34) and 500 Baby Boomers (ages 50-65) in America to compare how much they’d paid for their post-high school education, including undergraduate and post-graduate degrees, what portion of it they had to borrow to pay for and what value they thought it bought them.
The cost of education has increased massively in America
- Millennials were almost two-and-a-half-times more likely than Baby Boomers to have paid $30,000 or more for their education (47 percent to 19 percent), and more than three times as likely to have paid $60,000 or more.
- 38 percent of Baby Boomers reported that their education cost them less than $15,000. Almost 60 percent paid less than $30,000.
As tuitions cost skyrocket, Millennials are being forced into debt at an unprecedented rate.
- Almost three-quarters of Millennials surveyed (73 percent) borrowed to pay for their degree, with more than half of all Millennials borrowing half or more of the cost of their education.
- In contrast, 54 percent of Baby Boomers said that they didn’t borrow a cent to pay for their degree.
It’s not just the rate Millennials are borrowing at – it’s the huge amount they’re having to borrow that sets them apart.
- Millennials were a staggering three times more likely than Baby Boomers to have borrowed half or more of the cost of their degree; and almost three times more likely to have borrowed the cost of their entire education.
- Almost 1-in-8 Millennials borrowed $50,000 or more to pay for their education.
- Almost half (49 percent) of Baby Boomers who said they had borrowed to finance their education, said that they’d borrowed less than $10,000, with 30 percent of them borrowing less than $5,000.
As costs increase, some Millennials have lost faith in the value of their education
- More than one in four Millennials (28 percent) said that their education didn’t bring them enough benefits to justify the steep investment.
As Millennials are borrowing at greater levels, they’re feeling a responsibility to help out and pay for their own children’s education
- Over half of Millennials said that a friend or family member contributed financially to their education.
- Four out of five Millennials surveyed (82 percent) said that they currently do, or would in the future, feel a duty to pay for their child’s education.