Wisconsin Student Loan Debt and Financial Aid Statistics

Wisconsin Student Loan Debt and Financial Aid Statistics

Federal student loan debt statistics in Wisconsin

  • Wisconsin has the 24th largest student loan debt of any state in the country at $23.2 billion
  • Although the average owed per borrower is 45th in the country
  • The average Wisconsin resident owes $​​31,894 – $5,893 below the national average
  • There are only 7 states where the average borrower owes less than in Wisconsin — West Virginia, Oklahoma, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, North Dakota, and Puerto Rico)
  • 727,400 people in Wisconsin currently have student loan debt
  • This makes Wisconsin the state with the 23rd most student loan borrowers in the country
  • Although when it comes to the percentage of the population that holds student debt Wisconsin falls back to 36th with 12.34% of the population holding student loan debt
  • 57.70% of borrowers in Wisconsin are under the age of 35 – this is the 9th highest proportion of young people with student loan debt

How much student loan debt does the average Wisconsin resident have?

  • The average Wisconsin resident owes $​​31,894
  • This is the 7th lowest average amount owed by residents of any state (including Washington DC and Puerto Rico)
  • Wisconsin residents on average owe $5,893 less than those across the nation
  • When looking at the brackets of how much residents owe:
    • 17.20% owe less than $5,000
    • 23.50% owe between $20,000 and $40,000
    • 1.50% owe more than $200,000

How much do Wisconsin residents borrow each year?

  • 41.60% of undergraduates in Wisconsin take out student loans each year
  • This is the 13th-highest rate in the country
  • 28.40% of undergraduates at 2-year colleges take out student loans which is also the 13th highest rate in the country
  • 47.20% of undergraduates at 4-year colleges take out student loans.
  • This is 22nd highest in the country
  • Those at 2-year colleges are awarded $4,909 per year on average – this is the 39th highest amount in the country
  • Those at 4-year colleges are awarded $6,369 per year on average – this is the 47th highest amount in the country

State-level financial aid for students in Wisconsin

  • The state of Wisconsin spends $135.1 million per year of state funds on financial aid for students
  • This is the 24th most spent of any state in the country
  • It works out to around $601 per undergraduate student, which is also the 24th most in the country
  • The $135.1 million spent on student financial aid equates to 0.45% of the Gross State Product which is the 23rd highest GSP spent on student financial aid.
  • Of the $135.1 million spent on student financial aid, $122.3 million is given out in the form of grants that do not need to be repaid.
  • The $12.8 million that is left over from the remainder of the budget is distributed through other programs which may include loans that need to be repaid in the future.