From staff reports

Ever increasingly, college students are mired by student debt long after receiving their diplomas.

Orange, Texas ranked 224 with the average student debt balance of $22,626.34.

Port Arthur came in at 372 with an average student debt of $23,701.90.

Beaumont was not on the lists for the top 500 cities with the lowest or highest average student loan debt.

For most, student loan payments have become another monthly expenditure that eats away at earnings, similar to a rent, electric, or water bill.

Currently, there are 43.3 million student loan borrowers that collectively owe $1.41 trillion in outstanding student loan debt. 60 percent of students will graduate college with debt. On average, these student borrowers will owe $28,400. Additionally, the federal student loan default rate is at 11.8 percent.

On a broad scale, the United States and its million of borrowers are failing to fix a worsening student debt crisis. However, there are individual places in the U.S. that are handling the student loan debt problem much more effectively than the country as a whole.

With the help of data licensed from Experian, LendEDU has recognized the 500 U.S. cities where the average student debt balances are lowest.

To be considered for this study, a town or city had to have a population above 15,000.

The top five cities and the average student debt balance are:

1 Kaufman, Texas $10,924.70

2 Fremont, Nebraska            $11,632.40

3 Duncan, Oklahoma $11,724.80

4 Gatesville, Texas $12,085.10

5 Collinsville, Oklahoma $12,682.40

General Student Loan Debt Statistics​

• ​Total Amount of Student Loan Borrowers: 43.3 million +

• ​Total Outstanding Student Loan Debt: $1.41 trillion +

• ​Average Federal Student Loan Default Rate: 11.8%

• Average Number of College Grads with Student loan Debt: 60%

• Average Debt Per Borrower: $28,400

• Average Debt Per Graduate: $16,033

Note: This stat is often incorrectly reported. Many sites post the average debt per borrower statistic as the average debt per graduate.

• Average Debt Per Graduate Student: $57,600

• Average Debt Per Borrower at a Public School: $26,872

• Average Debt Per Borrower at a Private School: $31,710

• Department of Education’s Estimated Profit Over Next 10 Years: $127 billion