Latino and African American students are the hardest hit in the ongoing student debt crisis, despite generally taking on lower levels of debt than some of their other peers.

According to a Washington Center for Equitable Growth study that maps student loan delinquency rates by racial and geographic areas, such marginalized communities are by far the most impacted by the ongoing crisis. The new data is in keeping with the findings of an earlier study conducted by the organization that generally arrived at the same conclusions.

Research Shows Race Plays a Factor

In the end, chief researchers Marshall Steinbaum and Kavya Vaghul concluded that the data clearly illustrates delinquency disproportionately impacts communities of color and that race, no matter what other conditions may exist, still has a strong impact on student delinquency.

In addition, researchers found middle-class minorities are the population most hurt by student loan delinquency.

"This debt is a drag on our economy overall, but these maps show us how much it is affecting local communities, especially communities of color, who must finance their education with debt," Maggie Thompson, the executive director of Generation Progress, said in a statement.

The findings mirror other recent studies such as those uncovered by The Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which recently found that education did not protect family wealth for black and Latino families, as it did for white families.

What's more, a 2013 Urban Institute report found that African American and Latino families are also less wealthy than white families, with the racial wealth gap three times the size of the racial income gap.

"These data tell us that debt-financed higher education is not the solution to racial inequality, since it doesn't overcome longstanding economic disparities," said Steinbaum, making note that research also shows 4 out of 5 black students are forced to take out loans for public colleges, compared with less than two-thirds of white students.

"It may even be contributing to the problem," she added.

Latino Still Believe College Affordable

Despite all the hardship and struggle associated with paying for college, the Latin Post recently reported a Gallup-Lumina Foundation poll found the majority of Hispanics in the U.S. still feel college is affordable.

According to Fusion, 51 percent of Hispanics think "education beyond high school is affordable" to anyone.

"This is a population of folks who are very hungry for education and see it as a pathway to a better life," executive director of Gallup Education Brandon Busteed said of Latinos. He added many of them see education as their only pathway to a good job.

Indeed, the National Center for Education Statistics reports more young Hispanics are electing to attend college than ever before. Over a 35 year period beginning in 1976, the percentage of Hispanic college students rose from 4 to 14 percent.

Pew Research also reports in 2012, seven out of 10 Latino high school graduates enrolled in college, a figure that's higher than black or white students.

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