Among New York City boroughs, the Bronx has the lowest percentage of residents with student loans. Bronx residents with loans tended to borrow smaller amounts than those living elsewhere in the city, and the Bronx has the smallest percentage of borrowers who owe more than $100,000.

Yet the Bronx also has the highest student loan delinquency rate out of New York’s five boroughs.

The seemingly contradictory statistics can be explained by comparing student loan balances to income. The median student loan balance represents 43 percent of the median income in the Bronx -- the highest percentage in New York’s five boroughs and a full 11 percentage points higher than the citywide average.

In other words, many Bronx residents just don’t seem to be earning enough to pay back student loan balances that look relatively modest on paper. Those loans turn out to be a significant burden in reality.

While experts might not be surprised by the report’s findings, it still offers a new way to examine student loan data: through the local geographic boundaries that help to shape residents’ everyday lives. Mapping out the data makes clear just how borrowers who live in low-income areas like the Bronx and Brooklyn struggle to pay back loan balances that tend to be much smaller than those in high-income areas like Manhattan.

Read the full article by Rick Seltzer about student loan debt from Inside Higher Ed