Women make up the majority of college attendees, and have been for ages. They are now graduating with 21k in debt compared to men, 19k. Those numbers aren't so far off, however, men are averaging about $1300 weekly upon graduating, while women are choosing jobs at about $800 weekly. So the men are at about 75% more.

So a major part of the ballooning total is who the loans were made to, and how quickly they are repaying them. Lots of raw costs have absolutely gone up ridiculously too, there's no doubting that. But surprise, there's not enough demand for the "just follow your dreams!" majors in the economy.

Women hold nearly two-thirds of the outstanding student debt in the United States — almost $929 billion as of early-2019.

Amazingly, women became the majority in college around 1980, but only in 2019 did college-educated women actually become 50% of the work force. So four decades of a significant chunk of female students getting a degree (and debt) and then just never working. That the overall student loan debt has soared under this behavior should surprise no one, it's just math.

Link for data: https://www.aauw.org/research/deeper-in-debt/