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The Street

Samanda Dorger

The States With the Highest and Lowest Student Debt

Grant (Organization) Unemployment Utah Mississippi New Hampshire WalletHub

How big of a problem is student debt? Some say the effect student loan debt has on the economy is similar to that of a recession, reducing business growth and suppressing consumer spending.

Others argue that the benefits of a college education outweigh the burdens of the loans. The average bachelor’s degree holder earns up to $33,000 more annually than a high school diploma holder, according to the Education Data Initiative.

At the end of the first quarter of 2022, total outstanding college-loan balances stood at nearly $1.61 trillion, according to the Department of Education.

Now, up to 43 million borrowers have been given some student debt forgiveness, totaling somewhere between $360 billion and $427 billion, according to a range of estimates.

Attending college in some states is cheaper than others, and that certainly affects the debt that students take on.

For in-state residents, tuition and fees in California are cheapest, at $3,161 for the 2021-22 academic year. For out-of-state residents, Mississippi is cheapest, at $7,862, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. Vermont is the most expensive across the board for in-state, out-of-state and private schools.

The Institute for College Access & Statistics found that the states with the largest average loan debt per student upon graduation were New Hampshire ($39,928) Delaware ($39,705) and Pennsylvania ($39,375.) New Hampshire and Pennsylvania are among the most expensive for in-state tuition.

To find the states with the most and least student debt, personal finance site WalletHub compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia based on 11 key measures of indebtedness and earning opportunities. The data set ranges from average student debt to unemployment rate among the population aged 25 to 34 to share of students with past-due loan balances.

The states with the highest proportion of student debt are South Dakota, New Hampshire, West Virginia and North Dakota. The states with the lowest proportion are Utah, Hawaii, and New Mexico.

It remains to be seen which states will actually benefit most from the recent forgiveness plan.

Here are all 50 states and D.C., ranked by most to least student debt.