One of the "hot-button" issues in the upcoming presidential election is how students will pay for their education, WalletHub notes—and to put things in geographical context, it's analyzed the numbers to see which states have the most and least student debt. The site looked at a dozen metrics across two main categories—"Student Loan Indebtedness" (which includes factors like average student debt and the share of past-due loans) and "Grant and Student Work Opportunities," which looks at availability of student jobs and internships, among other things—to rank the states. Here, the 10 harboring the most student debt:
- South Dakota (No. 1 in "Student Loan Indebtedness" category)
- Pennsylvania
- West Virginia (No. 1 in "Grant and Student Work Opportunities" category)
- New Hampshire
- Iowa
- Minnesota
- Mississippi
- Ohio
- Michigan
- Rhode Island
Read on for the states with the least student debt.
- Utah
- Hawaii
- California
- Wyoming
- Washington
- District of Columbia
- Florida
- Nevada
- Alaska
- Arizona
Check out the
entire list. (
Here, the states with the best and worst school systems.)
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