Attending college correlates with higher future earnings, but pursuing higher education is becoming progressively more expensive. Consider that the cost of attending a four-year public college in the United States has risen on average by 30% since 2005.
“As a result, people have been forced to take out more and more loans, with the average student loan debt now standing at nearly $42,000,” Chip Lupo, an analyst at the personal website WalletHub, said in a statement. “The good news is that living in certain states and attending a school with in-state tuition can greatly defray the cost of undergraduate education, minimizing the amount students need to borrow.”
To determine where education is the most and least expensive, WalletHub analyzed the price of in-state undergraduate tuition, room and board and other college costs in 49 states, then compared the total to the median household income. Alaska did not make it into the sample because of data limitations.
ThinkAdvisor tapped the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis for 2024 Real Median Household Income by State, updated Sept. 9.
See the accompanying gallery for the 12 states where a college education at a public institution costs the least.
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