There's finally a tiny bit of good news for the 40 million Americans with student debt

Finally, there is a least a small piece of good news about student debt.

According to the New York Federal Reserve's Quarterly Household Debt Survey, the total student debt load in America decreased between the first and second quarters of 2016 to $1.258 trillion from $1.261 trillion.

This decrease in aggregate student loan debt is the first decrease in this sort of debt since at least the start of 2003, the furthest back the New York Fed's data goes.

Typically the first and third quarters see the most student loan debt growth since those time periods include the start of semesters, but despite this trend there had always been, up until now, a slight increase between the first and second quarters.

Additionally, student debt is still near historic levels and the year-over-year increase was $97 billion, so it's not as if the ballooning debt loan has sudden turned.

Any decrease in debt loads, however, is good news for the millions of American holding these loans and at the very least the drop is an interesting point to make note of.

Business Insider/Andy Kiersz