Cities with the most and least student debt

College debts are one of the largest financial burdens for Americans. They make up the second highest type of household debt after mortgages, totaling a record $1.61 trillion. That’s about $37,000 per borrower.

High balances combined with a payoff timeline that lasts into middle age force many graduates to delay or give up other financial goals such as buying a home and saving for retirement. Paying back student loans has also become even more difficult due to the covid-19 pandemic, although the government allowed temporary halted payments on federal student loans through May 1, 2022.

While the country has a huge student-loan debt crisis, student-loan debts are more higher in some cities than others. To find out where borrowers are burdened the most, WalletHub, a personal-finance website, compared the median student-loan balance against the median earnings of adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree in more than 2,510 U.S. cities.

The top and bottom cities in its report, “Cities with the Most & Least Student Debt in 2022,” are shown below:

Cities with the highest student debt burden		Cities with the lowest student debt burden
Selma, Alabama		Vienna, Virginia
Ypsilanti, Michigan		Fremont, California
Avon Park, Florida		Menlo Park, California
Cordele, Georgia		Sammamish, Washington
Ridgeland, Mississippi		Milpitas, California
McComb, Mississippi		Gilroy, California
Orangeburg, South Carolina		Delano, California
Hattiesburg, Mississippi		Bronxville, New York
Ashland, Kentucky		Sunnyvale, California
Ithaca, New York		Coachella, California

Source: WalletHub

WalletHub also conducted a student money survey. It found:

• 93 percent of students are concerned about the economy.
• The No. 1 post-graduation fear among students is not finding a job, 36 percent, followed by student loan debt, 30 percent.
• 20 percent of students think that a college education is less important due to the covid-19 pandemic.
• 52 percent of students say their school isn’t doing enough to educate them about personal finance.
• Having emergency savings, 44 percent, is the most important financial lesson students have learned from the pandemic, followed by not going into debt, 23 percent, and having a steady job, 22 percent.