A stacked bar chart showing federal direct loans, FFEL and Perkins loans growing, cumulatively, over time from 2007 to 2023. Perkins loans make a small sliver of the total loans each year. FFEL loans were dominant in 2007, accounting for 78% of the total federal loan debt (which stood at $516 billion that year). Over time, the federal loan portfolio ballooned to over $1.6 trillion, and the share of FFEL loans shrunk to 12% while direct loans grew to 88% in 2023.