According to one study, the share of students graduating with $50,000 or more in student loan debt has more than tripled since the year 2000.

I remember the little party that my wife Amy and I threw to celebrate the final payment of her student loans. At the time, we were nearing the age of 30, and we both felt like the payments had been going on for decades.

It turns out that many people find themselves dealing with their student debt for decades, making it extremely difficult to save and invest.

The numbers-people at personal finance site WalletHub took on this topic by doing the math and figuring out which American cities had the "Most & Least Student Loan Debt."

They found out that there is a lot of student debt to spread around. Post-college debts represent one of the biggest financial burdens to Americans. In fact, student loans make up the second highest form of household debt after mortgages, totaling $1.38 trillion at the end of 2017.

According to a study that draws on data from the Department of Education, two in five student loan borrowers have a high chance of defaulting in the next five years. Surprisingly though, students with smaller debts are more likely to default than those with larger ones.

Here's what WalletHub looked at to come up with their totals:

Student-loan debts are more unsustainable in some places than others. WalletHub therefore compared the median student-loan balance against the median earnings of adults aged 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree in each of 2,515 U.S. cities to determine where Americans are most overleveraged on their college-related debts.

So, with "1st percentile" being best, and "99th percentile" being worst, Rockford comes in at the 67 percentile mark.

WalletHub's findings indicate that the median student debt amount for Rockford is $18,553. The "Median Earnings of Bachelor’s Degree Holders" in Rockford (defined by someone 25 years old or older with a bachelor's degree) is $44,629.

The next number, Rockford's "Ratio of Student Debt to Median Earnings of Bachelor’s Degree Holders" is the real attention-getter: 41.57%.

If you’re considering borrowing money for college or are in danger of defaulting, try using a Student Loan Calculator to determine an affordable payment amount and realistic payoff timeline.

You can read WalletHub's entire piece on student loan debt by clicking here.

Here's WROK's own Dave Ramsey giving his thoughts on a huge pile of student debt:

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