Average Student Loan Debt Statistics by School by State 2019

For the fourth consecutive year, LendEDU is pleased to once again publish our annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report, an in-depth analysis of student loan debt figures at nearly 1,000 four-year private and public higher education institutions across the United States.

While the figures change each year, the narrative certainly does not; student loan debt continues to be a growing issue in the U.S. and at nearly all schools in the country as the cost of college continues to rise. 

Nationally, outstanding student loan debt sits at $1.52 trillion, making it the second largest form of consumer debt trailing only mortgages. 

On an individual scale, the average borrower from the Class of 2018 received their diploma and left campus with $28,565 in student loan debt, up from $28,288 that was owed by the average Class of 2017 borrower.

Because of these eye-popping numbers that have now elevated the issue of student loan debt to the national scale as evident by the recent 2020 Democratic debates, LendEDU places tremendous value on the annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report.

Through licensing data from the annual Peterson’s financial aid survey, we can keep both current and future college students up-to-date on which institutions tend to lead to high levels of student loan debt, and which bring on the opposite, but more welcomed, outcome .

Further, as Congress continues to discuss the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act that could potentially hold certain schools more accountable for egregious student debt levels, this school-specific report could be extremely valuable for lawmakers and administrators alike. 

Peterson’s voluntary financial aid survey collects responses from nearly 1,000 four-year public and private institutions of higher education. The subsequent data allows us to provide the following valuable information on each of those schools for our readers:

• Average student loan debt per borrower per college
• Percentage of graduates with student debt per college
• Average student loan debt per borrower per state
• Percentage of graduates with student debt per state
• Average private student loan debt per borrower
• Percentage of graduates with private student debt
• Overall average debt rank in the United States (from lowest to highest debt per borrower)
• Overall average debt rank in each state (from lowest to highest debt per borrower)
• Private institutions with the lowest & highest average debt 
• Public institutions with the lowest & highest debt
• Percent change in average student debt per borrower vs. last year’s data for each school and state

The LendEDU team has worked diligently to compile this data and organize it in a user-friendly manner. If you have questions about this report, please email [email protected]

It is our hope that by reading LendEDU’s fourth annual Student Loan Debt by School by State Report, you are inspired to have productive conversations about student loan debt and the cost of college in the U.S.

Table of Contents

• Interactive Map
• Overall State-Level Rankings
• Overall School-Level Rankings
• Public School Rankings
• Private School Rankings
• Methodology

Interactive Map of Debt Rankings

Click a state below to see the rankings of colleges in that state as well as the statistics for the state overall.

Average Student Debt by State

Overall School-Level Rankings

Public School Rankings

Private School Rankings

Key Observations

• For the Class of 2018, the average debt per borrower was $28,565. This is up by $277 from the Class of 2017 in which the average debt per borrower was $28,288.
• When including those with no student loans, the average graduate in the Class of 2018 had $16,649 in debt. This is up by $329 from the Class of 2017 when the average debt per graduate was $16,320.
• 56.99% of graduates from the Class of 2018 at non-profit 4-year public and private colleges had student loan debt. This is slightly down from 57.96% from the Class of 2017.
• For the Class of 2018, borrowers from private institutions left with $38,186 in student debt on average (56.86% of grads were borrowers), whereas borrowers from public institutions left with $27,524 in student debt (57.04% of grads were borrowers).
• On the school-level basis in the Class of 2018, the average student debt per borrower ranged from a low of $3,043 at Appalachian Bible College to a high of $54,067 at Bryant University.
• On the state level basis in the Class of 2018, the average student debt per borrower ranged from a low of $19,742 in Utah to a high of $38,776 in Connecticut.
• For the Class of 2018, of the 250 colleges with the highest amount of student loan debt per borrower, 81.2% of the institutions were private, while 18.8% were public.
• For the Class of 2018, of the 250 colleges with the lowest amount of student loan debt per borrower, 57.2% of the institutions were public, while 42.8% were private.

Methodology

LendEDU’s Student Loan Debt by School by State Report was created using the newest Peterson’s financial aid data. Peterson’s released the new data for the Class of 2018 at the start of August 2019. The data was reported through a voluntary survey to the colleges and universities listed in the report. For reference, the data is released on a one-year delay. The Class of 2019 data will not be available until the late Summer or Fall of 2020.

The state-level data was calculated by analyzing Peterson’s financial aid data for 895 colleges and universities in the United States. We included data on the colleges and universities that reported the following information for the Class of 2018: proportion of graduates with student loan debt, number of bachelor degree recipients, and number of student loan borrowers. In addition, we only aggregated and analyzed the data for 4-year public and private nonprofit colleges and universities.

At the state level, we assigned weights to the individual colleges within a particular state. We calculated the average student loan debt per borrower at the state level by weighting the reported average student loan debt at each college by the number of student loan borrowers in the Class of 2018 at each particular institution. We calculated the proportion of student loan borrowers by weighting the reported proportion of student loan borrowers at each college by the number of bachelor's degree recipients at each particular institution. At the national level, we utilized the same weighting system used to calculate state averages.

The average debt per graduate was calculated by compiling the total debt at each university, divided by the number of bachelor’s degree recipients at each particular university. The average amount of student loan debt per graduate at the college level was then weighted by the number of bachelor’s degree recipients in the entire Class of 2018.

The data was provided on a voluntary basis by college officials. LendEDU did not audit the accuracy of the college-level data. Therefore, the state-level data may not be completely accurate.

The universities and colleges included in this study are limited to the following university function types: 4-Year Colleges, Comprehensive Higher Education Institutions, and Universities.

The universities and colleges included in this study are limited to the following main institution control types: Public State-Controlled, Public State-Related, Private Nonprofit, and Private Religious.

The school-level average student debt per borrower is the cumulative principal borrowed through any loan program for the last graduating undergraduate class (all students who started at the institution as first-time students and received a bachelor's degree)–Federal Perkins, Federal Stafford Subsidized and Unsubsidized, institutional, state, private student loans that the institution is aware of, etc. Includes both Federal Direct Student Loans and Federal Family Education Loans. Includes only loans (including co-signed loans) made to students who borrowed while enrolled at the institution. Excludes students who transferred in and money borrowed at other institutions, students who did not graduate or who graduated with another degree or certificate but no bachelor’s degree, as well as parent loans.

The school-level average private student debt per borrower is the cumulative principal borrowed through private alternative loans made by a bank or lender. Includes only loans (including co-signed loans) made to students who borrowed while enrolled at the institution. Excludes students who transferred in and money borrowed at other institutions, students who did not graduate or who graduated with another degree or certificate but no bachelor’s degree, as well as parent loans.

Click here to see our Student Loan Debt by School by State 2018 report.

**The following schools’ figures were removed after a reporting discrepancy occurred between the institutions and Peterson’s:

• Monmouth University
• Lewis-Clark State College
• Union University
• Dominican University of California
• Anderson University
• Sonoma State University
• Mansfield University
• Caldwell University