If you attend or graduated from a college in the Northeast, chances are you are among the highest student loan borrowers in the country.

That’s according to a report by LendEDU, who with the help of Peterson’s financial survey, analyzed student loan debt at nearly 1,000 four-year private and public higher education institutions across the U.S.

The annual “Student Loan Debt by School by State Report” found that a good portion of the 45 million Americans carrying around the $1.56 trillion in U.S. student loan debt, are concentrated in the Northeast.

In fact, nine of the 12 states burdened with student loan debt are in that region. Leading the pack are schools in the New England area. Connecticut is on top with an average $38,776 per student loan borrower. New Hampshire followed with $36,754 and Rhode Island with an average of $36,121 borrowed by students.

Interestingly enough, six of the states with the highest average student loan debt per borrower are home to seven of the eight Ivy League colleges. Starting with Connecticut, home to Yale University; New Hampshire, home to Dartmouth; and Rhode Island, home to Brown University.

Pennsylvania, the home of University of Pennsylvania, ranks fourth among the highest borrowers with $35,510.  New Jersey, where Princeton University is located, is ranked seventh with $33,593 and New York with two Ivy League schools – Columbia University and Cornell University – round out the top 12 with $31,523.

California, the only other state with an Ivy League school – Stanford University – ranked fourth among those with the lowest average student loan debt with $22,530. Western states fared much better than the northeastern states.

But Mike Brown, a research analyst at LendEDU, cautions not to read too much into that. Instead, Brown attributes the heavy student loan debt in the Northeast to the high cost of living in those areas.

“The cost of living in the Northeast (except for California) is the highest in the U.S.,” Brown said, pointing out that student loans are not just used for tuition but for room and board, books and other expenses. “So to cover those cost, students might take on more.’’

And when it comes to the elite schools, Brown said they are more proactive in assisting students with college costs. He noted that they have ample endowment funds and he also pointed out that many of the students at those colleges are from a more affluent background and may not need assistance.

So the drain on student loans is not from the elite schools, Brown said. In fact, he noted that most of the Ivy League schools rose to the top in the 250 schools with the overall lowest debt. Princeton students, for instance, only borrowed $9,059 in loans. Harvard students borrowed $13,372, and Yale students borrowed $14,575.

The report also showed that the top five states with the lowest average debt by borrower in addition to California are Utah with $19,747, followed by New Mexico with $22,115. Alaska was third with an average of $22,155, and Nevada with $22,600 rounded out the top five states with the least student loan debt.

LendEDU also compared the percentage difference in average student loan debt from the Class of 2017 to 2018. Alaska saw the highest drop at 12.6%. Alabama graduates saw a 7.21% drop. Colorado graduates’ student loan debt decreased by 6.67%. Kansas saw a decrease of 3.95% and Oklahoma saw a decrease of 3.9%.

On the other hand, Connecticut had the biggest percentage increase at 22.54%, followed by   Washington D.C. at 14.23%, New Hampshire came in third with 9.84%, West Virginia followed with 9.78% and New Jersey rounded out the top five with 9.09%.