The average student-loan debt facing graduating seniors in 2007 increased faster from the previous year than did the average starting salaries offered to recent college graduates, according to a report released today by the Project on Student Debt.

In its third annual report, “Student Debt and the Class of 2007,” the project found that seniors in the Class of 2007 who had loans carried 6 percent more debt than those in the Class of 2006, while average salaries rose 3 percent. The report found an average student-loan debt of $20,098 for 2007 graduates with loans, but estimates the actual figure is closer to $21,900, because of flaws in the available data.

Students graduating from colleges in Iowa had the highest average debt, $26,208, while those in Utah had the lowest, $13,266. The report also lists individual institutions with high or low average debt loads.

The project’s Web site includes an interactive map with state-by-state data. —Beckie Supiano