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.