The total student debt held by Dutch students and former students fell for the first time in 2026, Statistics Netherlands (CBS) reported based on provisional figures. At the start of this year, the total student debt stood at €28 billion, €0.8 billion less than a year earlier.The number of people with student debt also declined, marking the third consecutive year of such a drop. At the beginning of 2025, just over 1.5 million students and former students had student debt, a decrease of 60,000 compared to a year earlier.