What U.S. County Has Highest Student Loan Delinquency Rate?

I came across this national map on the Federal Reserve Bank of NY's webpage that lists student loan delinquency rates (over 90 days) by county as of June 2009.  Note how widespread delinquencies are throughout the United States.  Based on the number of Congressional districts with rates over 15%, you would certainly think that someone would recognize this is as an issue (especially since these debts cannot usually be discharged in bankruptcy).  Now back to the original question.  The county with the dubious distinction of having the highest delinquency rate:  Quitman, Mississippi. 

Here are some counties with student loan delinquency rates over 30%:

	Student Loan
County	Delinquencies
Quitman, Mississippi	53.33%
Meigs, Tennessee	50.00%
Woodruff, Arkansas	41.38%
Hamilton, Florida	40.66%
Liberty, Florida	39.76%
San Augustine, Texas	39.13%
Evans, Georgia	38.24%
Knox, Kentucky	34.96%
Marion, Texas	34.78%
Waushara, Wisconsin	34.29%
Tunica, Mississippi	34.25%
Marion, Georgia	33.72%
Trousdale, Tennessee	33.33%
Pemiscot, Missouri	33.15%
Holmes, Florida	32.63%
Castro, Texas	31.68%
Gallatin, Kentucky	31.67%
Humphreys, Mississippi	31.03%
Lawrence, Mississippi	30.86%
Covington, Virginia	30.51%

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Here is definition of student loan delinquency: 

Student loan delinquency rate 90+ days is defined as the number of active student loans 90 or more days delinquent (including bankruptcy and charge-offs from the past 12 months) as a percent of the total number of active student loans. Note that bankruptcy and charge-offs are included in the student loan delinquency measures as student loan debt usually cannot be expunged through bankruptcy proceedings.

Comments

[Belinda]

This is very interesting. I'd like ot know more about these counties to see if there are common traits that are driving these results.
I will say that on the surface, if you are a small community bank in MS you may not want to put student loans in your portfolio. I guess in some ways this makes a case for regional and national lenders who can spread Risk over a wider area.

I also find it interesting that only one county is north of the Mason-Dixon line. But again, without knowing the common traits of these counties it's hard to guess at what is driving these results.

[Scott]

The interesting point missing from this list is the population size of these counties. For instance Quitman, Mississippi county has a population size of just 8,724 people based on the last census data (per Google). With the fact that the average age in rural counties is above 40 years old, how many of these people of the 8,724 would have student loans? If only a few of these people have students loans, and just a few are 90 days past dew, it can make the 90+ percentage much higher without being significant statically.

Meigs, Tennessee 50.00% - pop of 11,086
Woodruff, Arkansas 41.38% - pop of 8,741
Hamilton, Florida 40.66% - pop of 13,327