Hawaiʻi borrowers have the second-lowest student debt in the country, according to a September 2026 WalletHub report.
The personal finance company compared all 50 states and Washington, D.C., using 12 measures. They included average student loan balances, the share of students with debt and the percentage of loans that are past due or in default.
Hawaiʻi ranked No. 50 overall (including the District of Columbia). Only Utah had a lower student debt burden. California, Washington and New Mexico rounded out the five states with the least student debt.
“Our 10 campuses give local students access to high-quality educational opportunities at an affordable cost,” UH President Wendy Hensel said in a news release. “Through affordable resident tuition, need-based financial aid and pathways across our statewide system, we are working to help students earn a degree without being weighed down by debt.”
At UH, 80% of first-time undergraduates across 10 campuses graduated debt-free during the 2024–25 academic year. That included 65% of graduates from UH’s four-year campuses and 90% from community colleges.
Mississippi had the nation’s highest student debt burden, followed by Delaware, Pennsylvania, South Carolina and West Virginia.
Outstanding student loan balances exceeded $1.72 trillion in the second quarter of 2026, according to the Department of Education. That amounts to more than $40,000 per borrower across 42.6 million Americans.
