As a Pew Research Center analysis noted last year, nearly one in five U.S. households (19%) owed money on student loans in 2010, more than double the proportion in 1989. Among households headed by someone younger than 35 (i.e., people more likely to be recent college graduates), a record 40% had student-loan debt outstanding.

The average student loan balance outstanding in 2010 was $26,682, but 10% of student debtors owed more than $61,894. (Pew Research derived those numbers from the Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years by the Federal Reserve Board.)

Somewhat older data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (analyzed by both Pew Research and the College Board) breaks down debt levels by type of institution and degree. As of the 2007-08 academic year, for instance, 25% of students who earned bachelor’s degrees from private nonprofit colleges carried more than $30,000 in debt, compared with 12% of public-college graduates and a remarkable 57% of graduates of private, for-profit schools.

According to the College Board, loans from all sources accounted for 40.4% of the $191.8 billion spent on financing undergraduate education in 2011-12. Grants from all sources accounted for 50.6%, with education tax benefits and work-study making up the rest.

The College Board figures exclude whatever students and their families pay from their own resources. But according to 2009 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranked fifth among 31 major countries studied in terms of reliance on households for funding higher education: 45.3% of total expenditures, trailing Chile, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea. (Although three countries — Denmark, Finland and Germany — didn’t separate households from other private-sector funding sources, their total private-funding percentages were well below the U.S.)

On average, public sources accounted for about 70% of total higher-ed expenditures in the 31 countries studied by the OECD, versus 38% in the United States.

College is a pretty pricey proposition, even after grants and scholarships are factored in. And the millions of students graduating this spring will soon learn just how expensive their degrees were when they start getting student-loan bills.

As a Pew Research Center analysis noted last year, nearly one in five U.S. households (19%) owed money on student loans in 2010, more than double the proportion in 1989. Among households headed by someone younger than 35 (i.e., people more likely to be recent college graduates), a record 40% had student-loan debt outstanding.

The average student loan balance outstanding in 2010 was $26,682, but 10% of student debtors owed more than $61,894. (Pew Research derived those numbers from the Survey of Consumer Finances, conducted every three years by the Federal Reserve Board.)

Somewhat older data from the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (analyzed by both Pew Research and the College Board) breaks down debt levels by type of institution and degree. As of the 2007-08 academic year, for instance, 25% of students who earned bachelor’s degrees from private nonprofit colleges carried more than $30,000 in debt, compared with 12% of public-college graduates and a remarkable 57% of graduates of private, for-profit schools.

According to the College Board, loans from all sources accounted for 40.4% of the $191.8 billion spent on financing undergraduate education in 2011-12. Grants from all sources accounted for 50.6%, with education tax benefits and work-study making up the rest.

The College Board figures exclude whatever students and their families pay from their own resources. But according to 2009 data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the United States ranked fifth among 31 major countries studied in terms of reliance on households for funding higher education: 45.3% of total expenditures, trailing Chile, the United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea. (Although three countries — Denmark, Finland and Germany — didn’t separate households from other private-sector funding sources, their total private-funding percentages were well below the U.S.)

On average, public sources accounted for about 70% of total higher-ed expenditures in the 31 countries studied by the OECD, versus 38% in the United States.

Drew DeSilver is a senior writer at the Pew Research Center.

The nation’s Hispanic student population reached a number of milestones in 2011, according to an analysis of newly available U.S. Census Bureau data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.

For the first time, the number of 18- to 24-year-old Hispanics enrolled in college exceeded 2 million and reached a record 16.5% share of all college enrollments. 2 Hispanics are the largest minority group on the nation’s college campuses, a milestone first achieved last year (Fry, 2011). But as their growth among all college-age students continues to outpace other groups, Hispanics are now, for the first time, the largest minority group among the nation’s four-year college and university students. And for the first time, Hispanics made up one-quarter (25.2%) of 18- to 24-year-old students enrolled in two-year colleges.

In the nation’s public schools, Hispanics also reached new milestones. For the first time, one-in-four (24.7%) public elementary school students were Hispanic, following similar milestones reached recently by Hispanics among public kindergarten students (in 2007) and public nursery school students (in 2006). Among all pre-K through 12th grade public school students, a record 23.9% were Hispanic in 2011.

Read the full report.

Reversing traditional gender roles, young women now surpass young men in saying that achieving success in a high-paying career or profession is important in their lives. Two-thirds (66%) of young women ages 18 to 34 rate career high on their list of life priorities, compared with 59% of young men. In 1997, 56% of young women and 58% of young men felt the same way.

There has also been an increase over the last 15 years in the share of middle-aged and older women who say being successful in a high-paying career or profession is “one of the most important things” or “very important” in their lives. Today, about the same share of women and men ages 35 to 64 share this view.

Read the full report which also explores trends for women in labor force participation and educational attainment, as well as attitudes of men and women about family and career.