In Pennsylvania, 1.15 million people signed up for Biden’s student loan forgiveness

Nearly 1.2 million Pennsylvania residents applied or were automatically eligible to receive federal student loan forgiveness, new data released by the Department of Education show.

The relief initiative would offer up to $20,000 in individual student debt forgiveness to millions of borrowers who earn less than $125,000 per year. The report, released last week, provides a more detailed look into who applied for relief locally and beyond between Oct. 14 and Nov. 11, when a court ruling paused the program.

Even as millions of borrowers’ applications have been approved, the relief plan is on hold until the U.S. Supreme Court weighs in.

In the meantime, an analysis of the federal data tells us more about local applicants. Here’s what we found:

In Pennsylvania districts with more registered Democrats than Republicans, 65% of eligible borrowers applied. In Republican-majority districts, 63% did.

This mirrors trends Politico noted in a nationwide analysis of student relief applicants that used zip code data.

According to Politico, borrowers in districts represented by Democrats were more likely to sign up for the student debt relief program than those in red areas, where many Republican leaders have criticized the program.

Democratic-represented districts averaged about 57,000 applications for debt relief compared to Republican districts’ 50,000 applications. While not always perfect, congressional districts are designed to have roughly equal populations, so application numbers across districts would be expected to be similar.

The Department of Education data did not include the political parties of applicants.

According to Politico’s nationwide analysis, borrowers in lower-income zip codes applied for student loan relief at a higher rate than those living in wealthier areas and more were approved, with 98% of applications coming from zip codes where the average income is under $75,000 and two-thirds from those where it’s less than $40,000.

The applicants’ exact income is unclear because the Department of Education did not collect that information, Politico reported.

» READ MORE: How Biden’s student-debt relief is helping Philly-area borrowers: ‘I can pay rent and utilities’

The student debt forgiveness applicants’ demographics have not been released by the Education Department, either.

But Pennsylvania’s 3rd Congressional, which has the most nonwhite residents (67% of its population, according to Census Bureau data), also had the highest number of applicants and approved applications.

The 2nd Congressional District, another majority nonwhite district in Philadelphia that has the highest percent of Latino residents in the state, had Pennsylvania’s second-highest number of approved applications.

According to Politico’s nationwide analysis, nonwhite majority zip codes accounted for more forgiveness applications per capita than majority-white zip codes.

Groups including the NAACP and Congressional Black Caucus say the relief program would help narrow the country’s racial wealth gap.

Department of Education data show that out of about 40 million eligible borrowers nationwide, about 26 million applied or were automatically eligible.

As noted by Axios, most congressional districts saw between 60% and 65% of eligible borrowers apply or automatically qualify. In Pennsylvania, that number was 64%.

Areas in northern Illinois saw among the highest interest with over 70% of residents applying or automatically qualifying, while districts in Puerto Rico, Oklahoma, and Arizona had among the lowest rates at just over 50%.

The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments on the student debt forgiveness plan later this month. Over half of House Republicans and 40 GOP senators have filed or signed onto Supreme Court briefs that say the plan is unlawful.

Graphics editor John Duchneskie contributed to this article.