From 2006 to 2022, the rate of high school dropouts in the United States has significantly decreased. In 2022, the high school drop out rate was five percent, a notable decrease from 9.7 percent in 2006.

In 2022, about 5.1 percent of Hispanic students in the United States dropped out of high school in grades 10 to 12. This is down from a high of 11.6 percent in 1995.

In 2022, the high school drop out rate for American Indian/Alaska Natives in the United States was 8.1 percent -- the highest rate of any ethnicity. In comparison, the high school drop out rate for Asians was 1.6 percent.

In 2023, around 23.5 percent of high school dropouts were unemployed, compared to 15.8 percent of graduates. See the United States unemployment rate and the monthly unemployment rate for further information. Unemployment among high school dropouts and high school graduatesAs seen from the timeline above, high school graduates are generally employed at a higher rate than individuals who had dropped out of high school. Since 2000, the share of high school dropouts to be employed has risen and fallen. Unemployment of high school dropouts reached a low in 2020 at 7.5 percent, falling well below graduates. In 2021, 90.1 percent of the U.S. population who were aged 25 and above had graduated from high school. Unemployment of high school graduates not enrolled in college is much higher than the national unemployment rate in the United States. As of 2021, unemployment in the U.S. was at 5.3 percent, down from a high of 9.6 percent unemployment in 2010, the highest yearly rate in ten years. Nationwide, unemployment is worst among farming, fishing, and forestry occupations, with a rate of 5.1 percent in May 2022, followed by construction and extraction occupations and transportation and material moving occupations. Not only were more than 7.5 percent of high school dropouts unemployed in 2021, but working high school dropouts earned less on average than individuals of any other level of educational attainment. In 2020, mean earnings of individuals who had not graduated from high school were about 26,815 U.S. dollars annually, compared to 39,498 dollars among high school graduates and 73,499 dollars among those with a Bachelor's degree.

The New York State calculation method was first adopted for the Cohort of 2001 (Class 2005). The cohort consists of al students who first entered 9th grade in a given school year (e.g., the cohort of 2006 entered 9th grade in 2006-2007 school year). Graduates are defined as those students earning either a local or regents diploma and exclude those earning either a special education (IEP) diploma for GED. "The NYSED defined English/Math Aspirational Performance Measure (APM) is the ercentage of students that after their fourth year in high school have met NYSED standards: Graduated by August with a Regents or Local diploma, AND Earned a 75 or higher on the English Regents, AND Earned an 80 or higher on one Math Regents." In order to comply with FERPA regulations on public reporting of education outcomes, rows with a cohort of 20 or fewer students are suppressed. Due to small number of students identified as Native American or Multi-Racial these ethnicities are not reported on the Ethnicity tab, however these students are included in the counts on all other tabs.

The statistic shows the public high school dropout rate in the United States in 2012, by state. The dropout rate shows the number of 9th - 12th grade dropouts divided by the number of students enrolled at the beginning of the school year in those grades. In 2012, the state of Alaska had the highest dropout rate at 7.0 percent.

This study includes the federal graduation rate for all NCAA member institutions who participated in Division I or Division II sports. It also describes the Graduation Success Rate (GSR) for all Division I institutions and the Academic Success Rate (ASR) of all Division II institutions. The rates included in this study are based on championship sport student-athletes who first began their full-time postsecondary education in academic years 1995-96 through 2008-09.Each cohort was tracked for 6 years for college completion. For example, the graduation status for the latest cohort (2008-09 cohort) was tracked through the spring of 2014. At their core, all three measures are based on a comparison of the number of students who entered a college or university in a given year and the number of those who graduated within six years of their initial enrollment, though each measure has a slightly different cohort definition. Federal graduation rates are based on the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System Graduation Rates (IPEDS-GRS) which is defined as a six-year proportion of those student-athletes who graduated versus those who entered an institution on institutional aid. Federal graduation rates are included for both an institution's student-athletes and its general student body. In addition to the student-athlete data in the graduation-rates data, the Division I Graduation Success Rate (GSR) accounts for student-athletes who transfer into an institution while discounting student-athletes who separate from the institution and would have been academically eligible to compete had they returned. The definition of the Division II Academic Success Rate (ASR) cohort is identical to that of the GSR with the exception that it also includes freshmen who did not receive athletics aid, but did participate in athletics. Datasets: DS0: Study-Level Files DS1: Division I National Aggregation Overall DS2: Division I National Aggregation Student-Athletes DS3: Division I National Aggregation Student Body DS4: Division I School Student-Athletes and Student Body DS5: Division I Squad Level Graduation Success Rate DS6: Division II National Aggregation Overall DS7: Division II National Aggregation Student-Athletes DS8: Division II National Aggregation Student Body DS9: Division II School Student-Athletes and Student Body DS10: Division II Squad Level Academic Success Rate Population of student-athletes and NCAA member institutions who participated in Division I or Division II athletics from 1995-2008. Presence of Common Scales: federal graduation rate graduation success rate academic success rate record abstracts

This map shows high school graduations within the US by graduation rate. This is shown by county, state, and country from the 2022 County Health Rankings. The national average of students who graduate high school is 86%.The data comes from the County Health Rankings 2022 layer. The County Health Rankings, a collaboration between the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, measure the health of nearly all counties in the nation and rank them within states. "By ranking the health of nearly every county in the nation, County Health Rankings & Roadmaps (CHR&R) illustrates how where we live affects how well and how long we live. CHR&R also shows what each of us can do to create healthier places to live, learn, work, and play – for everyone."Counties are ranked within their state on both health outcomes and health factors. Counties with a lower (better) health outcomes ranking than health factors ranking may see the health of their county decline in the future, as factors today can result in outcomes later. Conversely, counties with a lower (better) factors ranking than outcomes ranking may see the health of their county improve in the future.

In 2023, the University of Pennsylvania had the highest four-year graduation rate of all Ivy League schools, at 88 percent. Cornell University followed closely behind, with an 87 percent four-year graduation rate.

The Recent College Graduates (RCG) survey estimates the potential supply of newly qualified teachers in the United States and explores the immediate post-degree employment and education experiences of individuals obtaining bachelor's or master's degrees from American colleges and universities. The RCG survey, which focuses heavily, but not exclusively, on those graduates qualified to teach at the elementary and secondary levels, is designed to meet the following objectives: (1) to determine how many graduates become eligible or qualified to teach for the first time and how many are employed as teachers in the year following graduation, by teaching field, (2) to examine the relationships among courses taken, student achievement, and occupational outcomes, and (3) to monitor unemployment rates and average salaries of graduates by field of study. The RCG survey collects information on education and employment of all graduates (date of graduation, field of study, whether newly qualified to teach, further enrollment, financial aid, employment status, and teacher employment characteristics) as well as standard demographic characteristics such as earnings, age, marital status, sex, and race/ethnicity.

The U.S. Department of Education’s graduation rate, which is reported through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), is a nationally recognized and commonly used metric in higher education. Graduation rate is calculated as the percentage of first‐time, full‐time, degree/certificate seeking students that complete a CCC program within 150% of the estimated time it takes to complete the program.

This statistic shows the higher education graduation rate in the United States from the 2000/01 academic year to 2016/17. The graduation rate includes all those who completed their higher education certificate or degree within 150% of normal completion time. The graduation rate has remained relatively constant over time and most recently in 2017/18 the graduation rate stood at 50 percent.

Adjusted 4-year cohort graduation rate by County provided by the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction.

Graduation Outcomes - Cohorts of 2001 through 2006 (Classes of 2005 through 2010) ¶¶•The New York State calculation method was first adopted for the Cohort of 2001 (Class of 2005). The cohort consists of all students who first entered 9th grade in a given school year (e.g., the Cohort of 2006 entered 9th grade in the 2006-2007 school year). Graduates are defined as those students earning either a Local or Regents diploma and exclude those earning either a special education (IEP) diploma or GED. For the most recent cohort, graduation rates as of both June and August (including summer graduates) are reported. ¶¶•Records with cohorts of 20 students or less are suppressed. August outcomes are only reported for the most recent cohort. ¶¶•August outcomes include all June and August graduates. In school-level reporting, students who were in a school for less than 5 months are not included in the school’s cohort, but are included in citywide totals. ¶¶•School level results are not presented for District 79 schools, but their outcomes are included in citywide totals. ¶¶•Schools are listed by their current DBN's.

EDFacts Graduates and Dropouts, 2017-18 (EDFacts GD:2017-18) is one of 17 “topics" identified in the EDFacts documentation (in this database, each “topic" is entered as a separate study). EDFacts GD:2017-18 (ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts) annually collects cross-sectional data from states about student who graduate or receive a certificate of completion from secondary education or students who dropped out of secondary education at the school, LEA, and state levels. EDFacts GD:2017-18 data were collected using the EDFacts Submission System (ESS), a centralized portal and their submission by states is mandatory and required for benefits. Not submitting the required reports by a state constitutes a failure to comply with law and may have consequences for federal funding to the state. Key statistics produced from EDFacts GD:2017-18 are from 6 data groups with information on Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate (Four, Five, and Six Year)-Graduation Rate; Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate (Four, Five, and Six Year)-Student Counts; Graduation Rate; Graduates/Completers; Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate-Flex; and Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate Student Counts-Flex. For the purposes of this system, data groups are referred to as variables, as a result of the structure and format of EDFacts' data.

EDFacts Graduates and Dropouts, 2012-13 (EDFacts GD:2012-13) is one of 17 “topics" identified in the EDFacts documentation (in this database, each “topic" is entered as a separate study). EDFacts GD:2012-13 (ed.gov/about/inits/ed/edfacts) annually collects cross-sectional data from states about student who graduate or receive a certificate of completion from secondary education or students who dropped out of secondary education at the school, LEA, and state levels. EDFacts GD:2012-œ13 data were collected using the EDFacts Submission System (ESS), a centralized portal and their submission by states is mandatory and required for benefits. Not submitting the required reports by a state constitutes a failure to comply with law and may have consequences for federal funding to the state. Key statistics produced from EDFacts GD:2012-13 are from 6 data groups with information on Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate (Four, Five, and Six Year)-Graduation Rate; Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate (Four, Five, and Six Year)-Student Counts; Graduation Rate; Graduates/Completers; Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate-Flex; and Regulatory Cohort Graduation Rate Student Counts-Flex. For the purposes of this system, data groups are referred to as 'variables', as a result of the structure and format of EDFacts' data.

High School graduation rates for the 2016-2017 school year, by U.S. Census Block Group, for the state of Michigan. Data Driven Detroit obtained these datasets from MI School Data, for the State of the Detroit Child tool in October 2018. Graduation rates were originally obtained on a school level and aggregated to tract by Data Driven Detroit. The graduation rates were calculated by Data Driven Detroit, using the count of students per cohort per school divided by the count of students who graduated. Click here for metadata (descriptions of the fields).

Graduation Outcomes - Class of 2010 - Math/ELA Aspirational Performance Measure (APM) ¶•The New York State Education Department adopted Aspirational Performance Measures (APM) in addition to high school graduation rates for the Cohort of 2006 (Class of 2010). In addition to the numbers of students earning Advanced Regents Designation on their diplomas, another metric was developed based on performance on Math and ELA Regents exams. The Math/ELA APM represents the percentage of students in the cohort who graduated with any regular diploma (Regents Diploma with Advanced Designation, Regents Diploma, or Local Diploma) and who scored 80 or greater on their highest mathematics Regents and 75 or greater on the English Regents. Since this metric is new for the Class of 2010, only one year of results is reported, separately for June and August graduation cohorts. The total number of students in the cohort is the same in June and August. ¶•Records with cohorts of 20 students or less are suppressed. ¶•August outcomes include all June and August graduates. ¶•In school-level reporting, students who were in a school for less than 5 months are not included in the school’s cohort, but are included in citywide totals. ¶•School level results are not presented for District 79 schools, but their outcomes are included in citywide totals. ¶•Schools that had previously obtained a waiver to use alternative assessments (rather than Regents examinations) were omitted from the Math/ELA APM calculations.

In 2021, about 37.7 percent of the U.S. population who were aged 25 and above had graduated from college or another higher education institution, a slight decline from 37.9 the previous year. However, this is a significant increase from 1960, when only 7.7 percent of the U.S. population had graduated from college.

Demographics

Educational attainment varies by gender, location, race, and age throughout the United States. Asian-American and Pacific Islanders had the highest level of education, on average, while Massachusetts and the District of Colombia are areas home to the highest rates of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher. However, education levels are correlated with wealth. While public education is free up until the 12th grade, the cost of university is out of reach for many Americans, making social mobility increasingly difficult.

Earnings

White Americans with a professional degree earned the most money on average, compared to other educational levels and races. However, regardless of educational attainment, males typically earned far more on average compared to females. Despite the decreasing wage gap over the years in the country, it remains an issue to this day. Not only is there a large wage gap between males and females, but there is also a large income gap linked to race as well.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, many schools in the United States had to make the switch to distance learning rather than in-person classes. Because of the switch to online learning, it is estimated that if in-classroom instruction does not resume until fall 2021, that there will be an additional 1.1 million high-school dropouts in the U.S.