Dayton ranks high with students with the most college debt

Dayton has some of the most student loan debt of any U.S. city, a new report out today shows.

The Gem City ranks in the top 4 percent of cities with the most student debt, according to personal finance website WalletHub, which released an annual report today on the cities with the most and least student debt.

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In Dayton, the median balance of someone with student loan debt is $21,305 while the median earnings of someone with a bachelor’s degree is $36,214, the report shows. Those statistics give Daytonians with a four year degree a 58.8 percent ratio of student debt to earnings.

To determine the cities where people took on too much student loan debt, WalletHub divided the median student-loan balance in 2017 by the median earnings of adults age 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree.

In recent years, student loan debt has ballooned nationally to nearly $1.4 trillion.

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Student loans have long been an issue in Ohio and the state is no stranger to poor rankings for its student debt. Last August, WalletHub released a report that ranked Ohio as the worst state in the country for student loan debt.

The August report named Ohio the third most indebted state and grant and student work opportunities came in at No. 20 in the same ranking.

Here’s how Dayton compares to Ohio’s other major cities in WalletHub’s latest report on student debt per city.

Dayton: 96 percentile, $21,305 median student debt

Columbus: 85 percentile, $22,106 median student debt

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Cincinnati: 87 percentile, $21,679 median student debt

Cleveland: 89 percentile, $21,166 median student debt

Akron: 95 percentile, $22,989 median student debt

Toledo: 93 percentile, $22,649 median student debt

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