Americans Are Paying Record Amounts On Car Loans and Student Debt. For Some, it’s More Than $1,000 a Month.

Americans are paying record amounts on car loans, with average monthly obligations reaching $716. Student debt is adding another financial burden for millions of borrowers already struggling to cover everyday expenses, new data shows.

The Urban Institute noted that more than 74 million U.S. adults have auto debt, while approximately 36 million carry student loans. About 6% of adults hold both types of debt, leaving them exposed to two substantial monthly payments alongside their other bills.

The average reported student loan obligation stands at $316 a month, according to the Urban Institute's latest dataset, released Oct. 13.

That combination could mean that some people are paying more than $1,000 a month. The student loan figure also reflects amounts reported to credit bureaus rather than payments borrowers necessarily make each month. Some federal borrowers remain in deferment, forbearance or income-driven repayment arrangements that reduce their immediate obligations.

The Urban Institute analyzed anonymized credit records from a nationally representative panel of consumers, examining borrowing patterns between August 2019 and August 2026. Its sample included more than 10 million consumers annually from 2021 onward.

The data shows that although the share of adults with auto loans declined from 31% in 2019 to 28% in 2026, monthly payment obligations have increased as borrowers contend with higher vehicle financing costs.

The financial pressure extends well beyond vehicle and education loans. A separate study by The Century Foundation and Protect Borrowers, published Sept. 29, found that inflation-adjusted monthly consumer debt payments increased 14.8% since the end of 2022, while real household income grew just 1.7%.

For a typical single-earner household in the researchers' model, monthly take-home income increased by $109 during that period. Debt payments rose by $57, absorbing approximately 52 cents of every additional dollar earned.

The burden was greater in a two-earner example where both workers experienced the average increase in debt obligations. Their combined payments rose $114 monthly, exceeding the $109 income gain used in the comparison.

About 80% of working-age adults carry consumer debt, the study found. Required monthly payments now account for roughly 10% of estimated after-tax household income among borrowers, compared with 8.9% at the end of 2022.

Credit cards make up the largest share of those obligations at 44%, followed by auto loans at approximately 40%. Student loans account for another 7.5%, although federal repayment pauses and other arrangements have reduced reported obligations for some borrowers.

The researchers used credit bureau records alongside neighborhood-level income estimates to calculate how much of household income goes toward required debt payments.

Their analysis found that borrowers in lower-income neighborhoods faced considerably greater pressure despite having loan payments similar to those of higher-income households.

For workers in the lowest fifth of the income distribution, the median monthly car payment was $462, compared with $495 for those in the highest fifth.

But combining car and credit card payments consumed approximately 17% of estimated take-home income for lower-income workers, against just 7% for those in higher-income neighborhoods.

Including student loans increased those shares to 21% and 9%, respectively. The study's median auto loan payment of $471 differs from the Urban Institute's $716 average because the two analyses use different populations and statistical measures.

The Urban Institute's research also found differences in combined borrowing across states. Among consumers with both auto and student loans, average outstanding debt exceeded $87,000 in Washington, D.C., and $82,000 in Maryland. In South Dakota, the average was below $60,000.

Despite those differences, average combined monthly obligations generally ranged between $900 and $1,100 across states. The likelihood of carrying either type of debt also varied by age. Approximately 45% of adults in each age group below 55 held an auto loan, student loan or both, compared with 36% of those ages 55 to 64 and 18% of adults older than 65.

For Black workers, consumer debt payments accounted for 13.3% of estimated take-home income, compared with 10.7% for Hispanic workers, 9.4% for White workers and 6.8% for Asian workers.

Those figures reflect group-level estimates based on credit records and neighborhood incomes, rather than actual budgets for individual households.