Americans collectively have around $1.61 trillion in student loan debt, divided among 42.2 million borrowers. With education being so expensive, and so many people borrowing, some people are unfortunately bound to be delinquent. Delinquency on student loans can lead to costly late fees and credit score damage, and eventually to other consequences like wage garnishment.
Some cities’ residents are having an easier time keeping up with their student loan payments than others, though. To determine the cities most delinquent on student loans, we analyzed WalletHub’s proprietary user data on consumer delinquency rates from Q3 2024.
Chip Lupo, WalletHub Analyst
Main Findings
Student Loan Delinquency Rates by City
| Overall Rank* | City | Student Loan Delinquency Rate in Q3 2024 |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | New Orleans, LA | 3.04% |
| 2 | Chandler, AZ | 2.55% |
| 3 | Bakersfield, CA | 2.38% |
| 4 | Pittsburgh, PA | 2.05% |
| 5 | Baltimore, MD | 2.00% |
| 6 | St. Louis, MO | 1.83% |
| 7 | Lubbock, TX | 1.77% |
| 8 | Plano, TX | 1.71% |
| 9 | Gilbert, AZ | 1.65% |
| 10 | Durham, NC | 1.64% |
| 11 | Baton Rouge, LA | 1.60% |
| 12 | Chula Vista, CA | 1.53% |
| 13 | Philadelphia, PA | 1.50% |
| 14 | Anchorage, AK | 1.48% |
| 15 | Cincinnati, OH | 1.47% |
| 16 | Reno, NV | 1.46% |
| 17 | Washington, DC | 1.44% |
| 18 | Jacksonville, FL | 1.43% |
| 19 | Tampa, FL | 1.43% |
| 20 | Houston, TX | 1.42% |
| 21 | Atlanta, GA | 1.41% |
| 22 | San Diego, CA | 1.38% |
| 23 | Dallas, TX | 1.33% |
| 24 | Columbus, OH | 1.32% |
| 25 | Virginia Beach, VA | 1.30% |
| 26 | Jersey City, NJ | 1.30% |
| 27 | St. Paul, MN | 1.27% |
| 28 | St. Petersburg, FL | 1.26% |
| 29 | San Antonio, TX | 1.21% |
| 30 | New York, NY | 1.16% |
| 31 | Minneapolis, MN | 1.15% |
| 32 | Cleveland, OH | 1.13% |
| 33 | Chicago, IL | 1.11% |
| 34 | Boston, MA | 1.08% |
| 35 | Anaheim, CA | 1.07% |
| 36 | Nashville, TN | 1.05% |
| 37 | Fort Worth, TX | 1.04% |
| 38 | Las Vegas, NV | 1.03% |
| 39 | Lexington-Fayette, KY | 1.03% |
| 40 | Memphis, TN | 1.02% |
| 41 | Charlotte, NC | 1.02% |
| 42 | Greensboro, NC | 1.00% |
| 43 | Indianapolis, IN | 1.00% |
| 44 | Wichita, KS | 0.99% |
| 45 | Irving, TX | 0.98% |
| 46 | Toledo, OH | 0.98% |
| 47 | San Francisco, CA | 0.97% |
| 48 | Phoenix, AZ | 0.96% |
| 49 | Des Moines, IA | 0.96% |
| 50 | Madison, WI | 0.93% |
| 51 | Miami, FL | 0.93% |
| 52 | Detroit, MI | 0.91% |
| 53 | Richmond, VA | 0.91% |
| 54 | San Jose, CA | 0.87% |
| 55 | Omaha, NE | 0.87% |
| 56 | Henderson, NV | 0.86% |
| 57 | Tulsa, OK | 0.83% |
| 58 | Kansas City, MO | 0.82% |
| 59 | Raleigh, NC | 0.82% |
| 60 | Albuquerque, NM | 0.81% |
| 61 | Birmingham, AL | 0.77% |
| 62 | Oklahoma City, OK | 0.77% |
| 63 | Louisville, KY | 0.76% |
| 64 | Sacramento, CA | 0.73% |
| 65 | Denver, CO | 0.73% |
| 66 | Buffalo, NY | 0.71% |
| 67 | Riverside, CA | 0.71% |
| 68 | Newark, NJ | 0.68% |
| 69 | Arlington, TX | 0.68% |
| 70 | Aurora, CO | 0.68% |
| 71 | Colorado Springs, CO | 0.68% |
| 72 | Seattle, WA | 0.67% |
| 73 | Boise, ID | 0.67% |
| 74 | Portland, OR | 0.64% |
| 75 | Orlando, FL | 0.63% |
| 76 | Long Beach, CA | 0.63% |
| 77 | Milwaukee, WI | 0.61% |
| 78 | Fresno, CA | 0.60% |
| 79 | Garland, TX | 0.59% |
| 80 | Oakland, CA | 0.55% |
| 81 | Los Angeles, CA | 0.54% |
| 82 | Scottsdale, AZ | 0.53% |
| 83 | Fort Wayne, IN | 0.51% |
| 84 | Austin, TX | 0.48% |
| 85 | Stockton, CA | 0.47% |
| 86 | Mesa, AZ | 0.46% |
| 87 | Honolulu, HI | 0.44% |
| 88 | El Paso, TX | 0.43% |
| 89 | Spokane, WA | 0.43% |
| 90 | San Bernardino, CA | 0.43% |
| 91 | Tucson, AZ | 0.40% |
| 92 | North Las Vegas, NV | 0.39% |
| 93 | Hialeah, FL | 0.38% |
| 94 | Norfolk, VA | 0.37% |
| 95 | Lincoln, NE | 0.34% |
| 96 | Chesapeake, VA | 0.33% |
| 97 | Corpus Christi, TX | 0.27% |
| 98 | Glendale, AZ | 0.27% |
| 99 | Irvine, CA | 0.25% |
| 100 | Santa Ana, CA | 0.20% |
Note: *No. 1 = Most Delinquent.
In-Depth Look at the Most Delinquent Cities
New Orleans, LA
New Orleans is the city where people are most delinquent on their student loans, with more than 3% of loans in delinquent status as of Q3 2024.
New Orleans residents also have a lot of student loan debt to begin with, ranking in the 11th percentile of the country. This may contribute to the higher-than-average delinquency rate since payments may be larger than in other cities. New Orleans also has a lot of residents in financial distress.
Chandler, AZ
Chandler, AZ, is the city where people are the second-most delinquent on student loans. Around 2.6% of student loans in the city were in delinquent status as of Q3 2024.
Interestingly, Chandler residents don’t have all that much student loan debt in general, only ranking in the 71st percentile of the country. It seems that conditions may have changed in Chandler since the beginning of the year, because it ranked 32nd among the cities paying off the most household debt during Q1 2024.
Bakersfield, CA
Bakersfield, CA, has the third-highest delinquency rate on student loans, at nearly 2.4%.
It’s surprising that Bakersfield has one of the highest delinquency rates in the country, considering the city only ranks in the 90th percentile for the amount of student loan debt that residents have. However, difficulty with other types of debt may be causing residents to be late on student loan payments as well – Bakersfield is the city with the eighth-highest overall debt delinquency rate.
Methodology
To determine the cities most delinquent on student loans, we analyzed WalletHub’s proprietary user data on consumer delinquency rates from Q3 2024.
Sources: Data used to create this ranking were collected as of October 11, 2024 from WalletHub database.
WalletHub experts are widely quoted. Contact our media team to schedule an interview.