Higher education student loans outstanding, by nation
Higher education student loans outstanding at the end of each financial year for students funded by England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland, from the Student Loans Company's tables.
Student loans outstanding, England
£294.6bn
2025/26 · higher education; Wales £11,838 million, Scotland £10,379 million, Northern Ireland £6,017 million
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:13 UTC- England
- Wales
- Scotland
- Northern Ireland
Source: Student Loans Company. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
13 periods, newest first
| Period | England | Wales | Scotland | Northern Ireland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2025/26 | £294.6bn | £11.8bn | £10.4bn | £6.0bn |
| 2024/25 | £266.6bn | £10.6bn | £9.4bn | £5.6bn |
| 2023/24 | £236.2bn | £9.3bn | £8.4bn | £5.1bn |
| 2022/23 | £205.6bn | £8.0bn | £7.6bn | £4.7bn |
| 2021/22 | £181.6bn | £7.1bn | £7.0bn | £4.4bn |
| 2020/21 | £160.6bn | £6.2bn | £6.5bn | £4.1bn |
| 2019/20 | £140.1bn | £5.3bn | £6.0bn | £3.8bn |
| 2018/19 | £121.8bn | £4.7bn | £5.5bn | £3.6bn |
| 2017/18 | £104.5bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) | £4.1bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) | £5.0bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) | £3.3bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) |
| 2016/17 | £89.3bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) | £3.7bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) | £4.5bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) | £3.0bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) |
| 2015/16 | – | – | £4.0bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) | £2.7bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) |
| 2014/15 | – | – | £3.5bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) | £2.4bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) |
| 2013/14 | – | – | £3.1bn | £2.2bn (estimated: SLC marks self-assessment repayments for the years before 2018-19 as estimated) |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Student Loans Company
- Check it yourself
- https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2025-to-2026
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 9 November 2026, 14:58 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2025-to-2026SHA-256 b2a949bfb920ffad9b48fa8b9b9115f94f8a8da38f705562458cac9451019ac0 · 2,583 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a44d1241a04d4dae8b8155e/slcsp012026.xlsxSHA-256 88bf66933b0c2f6b905455a07d4862762d4be9fac503481d722a31baa9c32a09 · 305,216 bytes
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/student-loans-in-wales-2025-to-2026SHA-256 ceb036d23c83e60ecba7c3d91a0e27820bec833ea13df45402c5f87c8d70da29 · 2,545 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a44d8ce93349b85b718da13/slcsp022026.xlsxSHA-256 026f267be859e991aeac62bb3eb4079bb062545d9dcb633e0e87630c341e96ac · 258,974 bytes
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/student-loans-in-scotland-2025-to-2026SHA-256 dcd1105c45c8c27d6f04f533f050c89671c6cab8478abdfec32bff187282c556 · 2,602 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a44ee881a04d4dae8b815b7/slcsp042026.xlsxSHA-256 35cc6c82d0c42597d5b55e5a90a9e2c337cc2806c5d283a688be9ffd4f727501 · 142,040 bytes
- https://www.gov.uk/api/content/government/statistics/student-loans-in-northern-ireland-2025-to-2026SHA-256 32ec5a178a863b46d31d484a69e1d99ba0ddc05a4371f047cf9ecb791e1a9347 · 2,817 bytes
- https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/6a44e12afa72f76532a4e4a5/slcsp032026.xlsxSHA-256 6df56105311f4fbce57e296123905d18f253f5c008254f640af26c51e1618ae7 · 225,073 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 9 November 2026, 15:13 UTC Run at 9 November 2026, 15:13 UTC; 52 of 52 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Student Loans Company; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-09T14:58:37Z; 8 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 8 of 8 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 52 of 52 figures and the headline reproduced; the meta's accreditation and flags match |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 52 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 52 of 52 figures match exactly after downloading 8 source file(s) again (8 byte-identical); the headline matches; the meta's accreditation and flags match |
| Pass | GOV.UK table is current | latest period 2025/26 ended 223 days before retrieval (limit 500), from the stored table |
| Pass | SLC's UK comparisons agree | 46 of 46 figures match SLC's UK comparisons, Figure 1a/1b, in £ billion, the years each nation's table gives |
| Pass | Each year's closing balance is the next year's opening | 42 of 42 cases of the years' balances after adjustments are the next year's opening balance within £1,000 within 0.001 (28 exactly), 8 of them by the publisher's known difference: England, 2016/17 to 2017/18 (+0.00371637), England, 2017/18 to 2018/19 (-0.00491508), England, 2018/19 to 2019/20 (+0.1), Scotland, 2013/14 to 2014/15 (+0.0112226), Scotland, 2014/15 to 2015/16 (+0.00180642), Scotland, 2017/18 to 2018/19 (-0.0133839), Scotland, 2023/24 to 2024/25 (+0.00717087), Northern Ireland, 2013/14 to 2014/15 (+0.0104276) |
| Pass | Each year's end and its adjustments make its balance | 46 of 46 cases of the years give a closing balance and reconciling adjustment that add up to the balance after adjustments within £1,000, or, where SLC marks the adjustment negligible with a dash, a closing balance within £50,000 of it |
| Pass | Each balance's parts make it up | 46 of 46 cases of the years give balance parts (by domicile, or by whether repayment is due in Scotland) that add up to the balance after adjustments within £1,000 within 0.001 (34 exactly), 8 of them by the publisher's known difference: England, 2017/18 (-0.0813361), England, 2018/19 (-0.0358075), Scotland, 2013/14 (-0.0119066), Scotland, 2014/15 (+0.00129148), Scotland, 2017/18 (+0.013385), Scotland, 2018/19 (-0.0251964), Northern Ireland, 2013/14 (+0.0551956), Northern Ireland, 2014/15 (-0.00183821) |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/student-loans-in-england-2025-to-2026 – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- The income contingent loans each government has funded for higher education, owed at 31 March after SLC's year-end adjustments, in £ million as SLC gives them: England's from its Table 1A, which leaves out further education loans, and Wales's, Scotland's and Northern Ireland's from their Table 1. Each nation's figures stand alone; the hub adds no UK total.
- The Student Loans Company publishes these as accredited official statistics.