With a high school diploma in hand and ready to head to college, most graduates have dreams and are excited for what’s to come during the next four years.
At the same time, there’s a sobering fact incoming college students (and their parents paying for school) have to consider. College costs money and once that diploma is in hand, a staggering amount of money is facing the college graduate that has to be paid back.
The website Stacker has published an article that ranks the states and the District of Columbia for average student loan debt and Mississippi ranks just outside the top 10.
Mississippi stood 11th in the country, with 417,600 borrowers paying an average of $37,500 in student loan debt.
The article pointed out that Mississippi does have loan forgiveness for nurses and teachers in undergraduate programs and for counselors, school administrators, dyslexia therapists, and speech pathologists in graduate programs, according to Stacker.
The five states and District of Columbia with the most student loan debt are as follows
District of Columbia ($58,900)
Maryland ($43,200)
Georgia ($41,600)
Florida ($38,700)
Virginia ($38,500)
The five states with the least average student loan debt are as follows:
North Dakota ($28,500)
South Dakota ($29,800)
Iowa ($29,900)
Wyoming ($30,800)
Wisconsin ($31,200)
Among nearby Southern states, Tennessee was 20th ($36,200), Arkansas ranked 44th ($32,400), Louisiana was 29th ($35,000), and Alabama ranked 10th in the nation ($37,500).
Stacker looked at 2021 data from the Federal Reserve of New York to determine where student debt is hitting the nation the hardest. In case of a tie, Stacker looked at the number of borrowers in the state.
As a country, Americans owe about $1.56 billion in student loan debt.
