HONOLULU (KHON2) — Student debt weighs heavily on millions of Americans, even in Hawaiʻi. At the end of the first quarter of 2025, the Department of Education reported that outstanding college loans had grown to more than $1.66 trillion.
That breaks down to more than $39,000 for each of the 42.5 million borrowers nationwide. Only mortgages make up a larger share of household debt.
A new report compared all 50 states and the District of Columbia using 12 measures of student loan burden and job opportunities. Hawaiʻi ranked last on the list, which means it has the least student debt in the United States.
Where Hawaiʻi stands
The overall score placed Hawaiʻi at #51 with 22.02 points. That low score reflects lighter debt compared with the rest of the country. In the ranking of student-loan indebtedness, Hawaiʻi came in at #50; and for grant and student work opportunities, it ranked #36.
Another study found that Hawaiʻi is in the top 20 most educated states in the U.S., ranking at #18 out of 51. To have the lowest student loan debt says a great deal about how seriously residents take in managing debt,
Hawaiʻi also showed strong results in other categories.
- Among people ages 25 to 34, the state was tied at #42 for the lowest unemployment rate. That means more young adults are working, which may help them manage their debt.
- Hawaiʻi also had the lowest rate of past-due or defaulted student loan balances, ranking #47 in that category.
A wider look across states
On the other end of the spectrum, Mississippi held the top spot for most student debt with an overall score of 64.93. Other high-debt states included New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Delaware and South Dakota.
In contrast, states with low student debt clustered near the bottom of the ranking. Washington, New Mexico, California and Utah joined Hawaiʻi in the five lowest slots.
Differences amongst states can be large. For example, average student debt in New Hampshire, which ranked high, was more than twice that of Utah, which ranked low. Similarly, debt as a share of income was four times higher in Mississippi than in California.
“College keeps getting progressively more expensive and so does borrowing money to attend. Federal student loan interest rates recently hit a 12-year high, but they’re expected to ease slightly for the upcoming academic year, so it’s still important to plan carefully when borrowing,” explained said Chip Lupo, an analyst for the study. “In addition to attending college in a less expensive state and pursuing other avenues of funding like financial aid and grants, students should also carefully calculate how much they can afford to borrow before taking out a loan.”
You can click here to read the full report.
Hawaiʻi may offer some of the lowest debt burdens in the nation, but for millions of students elsewhere, the cost of higher education continues to rise.