Lucas Daprile

The State

Student loan debt has quadrupled in South Carolina, growing at a faster rate than any state in the last 10 years, according to a new report from Experian.

From 2008 to 2018, student loan debt in South Carolina increased from $5.6 billion to 23.1 billion, the report said. No other state grew by that much. North Carolina’s student loan debt grew the second-fastest in the last decade, with debt going from $11.9 billion to $41.9 billion, according to the report.

Experian is one of the country’s largest credit reporting companies. The report attributes that data to Experian, but does not describe the report’s methods.

The study’s results are consistent with a 2015 report from The Institute of College Access and Success that found student loan debt rates in S.C. increased faster than all but three states between 2004 and 2014.

Student loan debt grew in all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Student debt grew the slowest in Vermont, increasing from $1.7 billion to $2.9 billion, according to the report. Americans owe more to payoff student loans than they do to pay off their credit cards or their cars, the report said. The only type of debt Americans have more of is mortgage debt, the report shows. But what makes student loan debt so debilitating is students can’t discharge it in bankruptcy.

The average South Carolinian who borrows money for college has $26,535 in debt, according to a 2018 Zippia study.

Experian is just one of many companies that have tried to show how the $1.4 trillion student loan debt crisis (or $1.5 trillion depending on the source) is affecting college graduates.

In the last four years, multiple studies have shown that student loan debt has been harder on South Carolininans than those in other states. For example, a 2018 WalletHub study found S.C. had the 14th highest amount of student loan debt. A 2018 Simple Thrifty Living study foundcollege costs more in South Carolina, when compared to median income, than any other state.