Top 10 Cities in Illinois With the Most and Least Student Loan Debt

The class of 2016 is graduating with a record-breaking average of $37,172 of student loan debt, but the weight of student loans can be far worse for some than for others.

That’s why WalletHub studied more than 2,500 American cities to see where residents are most overleveraged on their student loans by dividing the average student loan debt by the median income of residents between the ages of 25 and 44.

Nationwide, around 43 percent of people who took out federal student loans aren’t making payments, and 1 in 6 have defaulted on their loans. According to Vanderbilt University associate professor William Doyle, it’s not clear how student loan debt is affecting the rest of the economy:

The short answer is: we don’t really know. We’ve engaged in a societal-level experiment in financing higher education through student debt. It could change the behavior of young people in many ways — it might affect the kinds of jobs they work in, their purchase of homes, and many other aspects of their lives. The problem is that we as a society “drifted” into funding higher education through student debt without ever having a clear discussion of the possible negative outcomes. Some amount of debt is manageable, particularly for those with degrees, but we as a society haven’t come to anything close to a consensus on what’s reasonable to expect young people to borrow.

While some Illinois cities have high rates of student loans debt and low incomes, some have residents that are coming out ahead — including several that were ranked in the very top percentile nationally.

Take a look at which Illinois cities WalletHub found to have the most and least student loan debt.

Like what you see here from Reboot Illinois? Then sign up for our daily email to get more great content right to your email.