More Americans Earning Bachelor’s Degrees and Higher

Today, more Amer­i­cans are earn­ing high­er lev­els of edu­ca­tion. In 2013, approx­i­mate­ly 25 mil­lion peo­ple, or 58% of the U.S. pop­u­la­tion ages 25 to 34, had a high school diplo­ma or less; 9% had an asso­ciate degree and 33% had a bachelor’s degree or high­er (an increase of 3 mil­lion young peo­ple since 2000). 

In the past decade, 46 states and the Dis­trict of Colum­bia saw an increase in the per­cent­age of res­i­dents who earned a bachelor’s degree or high­er, led by Rhode Island, which expe­ri­enced a 44% increase. South Dako­ta and Kansas expe­ri­enced a decline in attain­ment, while New Hamp­shire and North Dako­ta saw no change.

See the eco­nom­ic well-being and edu­ca­tion sec­tions of the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter to access data for the nation, states and 50 largest U.S. cities:

• Medi­an fam­i­ly (with child) income 
• Chil­dren under age 6 with all avail­able par­ents in the labor force 
• Chil­dren under age 6 with no par­ent in the labor force 
• Edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment of pop­u­la­tion 25 to 34
• Edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment of work­ing age pop­u­la­tion 25 to 64