Members of the college Class of 2011 are leaving campus with an average of $39,900 in debt each.
Fidelity Investments, Boston, has based that statistic on results from a recent survey of 549 U.S. college graduates. The sample included 250 members of the Class of 2011 and 299 participants from the classes of 2009 and 2010.
About 78% of the recent graduates have some debt. The sum owed by the students with debt includes an average of $16,800 in government student loans, $14,200 in private loans, $3,600 in credit card debt, and $5,300 in other types of debt, such as family loans.
Fidelity conducted the survey to attract attention to its Section 529 college savings program.
