Source: The Institute for College Access and Success (TICAS)
Latest Data: 2020
Release Timing: November 2021
Frequency: Annual
Contact: Gretchen Wright, 202-371-1999, gretchen@prsolutionsdc.com

The data given here are the estimated averages of the total debt incurred by graduates of undergraduate colleges and universities at graduation as reported by The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS).  Their survey covers most of the 50 states and over 1000 educational institutions.  A companion 'interactive map' is available here.  We also report the percentage of Students Graduating With College Debt (TICAS) in the states.

The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) provides the following explanation about the data included in their state averages:  "Our state-level figures are based on the 946 public and nonprofit four-year colleges that reported the number of graduating students in the Class of 2020 with loans, the percent of graduates with debt, and the average debt of those who borrowed, and reported in the Peterson’s Undergraduate Financial Aid Survey that they awarded bachelor’s degrees for the Class of 2018. These colleges represent 46 percent of all public and nonprofit four-year colleges that granted bachelor’s degrees and 72 percent of all bachelor’s degree recipients in these sectors in the most recent year. Nonprofit colleges compose 59 percent of the colleges with usable data, similar to the share they make up of public and nonprofit four-year bachelor’s degree-granting colleges combined (66%).

We did not calculate state averages when the usable cases with student debt data covered less than 30 percent of bachelor’s degree recipients in the Class of 2018. We weight the state averages according to the number of borrowers reported in the Peterson’s Undergraduate Financial Aid Survey.

The state averages and rankings in this report are not directly comparable to averages in previous years’ reports due to changes in which colleges in each state report data each year, revisions to the underlying data submitted by colleges, and changes in methodology."