Why has a college degree become akin to an unaffordable luxury for millions of Americans?I am a scholar of the history of higher education. My data analysis of college tuition trends from 1840 to 2020 shows that college tuition has not significantly risen since 1990, at least compared to tuition changes over the previous decades.In fact, after a period of extraordinarily high tuition growth from 1920 to 1990, tuition growth slowed in the 1990s, 2000s and 2010s.But that’s likely little comfort to American families shocked at the sticker price of college costs. This is especially true because since 1980 the growth in real median family income has been relatively modest, while college tuition has continued to rise faster than inflation.Yale University’s class of 1870 poses for a photograph on the school’s campus in New Haven, Conn. Bettmann/Contributor via Getty Images
Rising tuition, more loans
High tuition has contributed to more than half of all undergraduate students in 2025 taking on student loans. In 1995 and 1996, by comparison, about 25% of undergraduate students had student loan debt.
Cumulative student loan debt rose from about $500 billion in 2006 to nearly $1.8 trillion in 2024.
