Academic Ladder is Extending for More Young Adults

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Today’s young adults are more like­ly to have an associate’s degree rel­a­tive to 2008 (42% ver­sus 37%). This sta­tis­ti­cal jump is encour­ag­ing, as the glob­al job mar­ket con­tin­ues to grow more skilled and specialized.

At the same time, more than half of all young adults ages 25 to 34 still have aca­d­e­m­ic careers that stop at or before their high-school grad­u­a­tion day. 

The like­li­hood that young adults stop their aca­d­e­m­ic track when — or even before — they have a high-school diplo­ma in hand varies by state. This sce­nario is most like­ly in Neva­da (70%) and least like­ly in Mass­a­chu­setts (43%).

Explore more eco­nom­ic well-being data — at the state and nation­al lev­el — in the KIDS COUNT Data Center.

• Chil­dren under age 6 with all avail­able par­ents in the labor force
• Chil­dren under age 6 with no par­ent in the labor force 
• Medi­an fam­i­ly income among house­holds with children
• Edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment of work­ing age pop­u­la­tion 25 to 64
• Edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment of pop­u­la­tion ages 25 to 34