MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Tennessee college graduates are carrying the 15th highest student loan debt in the nation and a new report says the problem is only getting worse.
WMOT reporting partner Wallethub.com says student debt nationwide grew by $72 billion dollars over the past year, currently totaling $1.3 trillion.
Wallethub analyst Jill Gonzalez says Tennessee graduates are laboring under a staggering debt load.
“The average right now is just over $25,000, and when you’re looking at that as a percentage of income it makes up almost 50 percent of a graduates (yearly) income ages 25 to 44.”
Compare that 25 grand in debt to Utah where graduates owe an average of $19,000 dollars and Delaware where the average debt is a whopping $34,000.
Gonzalez says the worst news of all, the amount of state and local grant money available to Tennessee students fell by about one percentage point in the last year alone.
Would you like to read the full Wallethub report?