California grads do well paying off student debt

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With several candidates for the 2020 presidential election proposing the cancellation or refinancing of America’s massive student debt load, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on 2019’s States with the Most and Least Student Debt as well as accompanying videos.

To determine the states that are friendliest toward student-loan debtors, WalletHub compared the 50 states and the District of Columbia across 12 key metrics. 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.

Best vs. Worst

• Utah has the lowest average student debt, $18,838, which is two times lower than in Connecticut, the state with the highest at $38,510.
• Utah has the lowest proportion of students with debt, 38.00 percent, which is 1.9 times lower than in New Hampshire, South Dakota and West Virginia, the states with the highest at 74.00 percent.
• Massachusetts has the lowest share of student loans in past-due or default status, 7.58 percent, which is 2.4 times lower than in Mississippi, the state with the highest at 18.34 percent.
• Hawaii has the lowest share of student-loan borrowers aged 50 or older, 3.80 percent, which is 2.6 times lower than in Vermont, the state with the highest at 9.93 percent.

To view the full report and your state or the District’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-and-worst-states-for-student-debt/7520/

(Banner photo “Graduated” credit Ralph Daily Wikimedia Commons)

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