In 2022, 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.

Overall educational attainment measures the highest level of education attained by a given individual: for example, an individual counted in the percentage of the measured population with a master’s or professional degree can be assumed to also have a bachelor’s degree and a high school diploma, but they are not counted in the population percentages for those two categories. Overall educational attainment is the broadest education indicator available, providing information about the measured county population as a whole.

Only members of the population aged 25 and older are included in these educational attainment estimates, sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS).

Champaign County has high educational attainment: over 48 percent of the county's population aged 25 or older has a bachelor's degree or graduate or professional degree as their highest level of education. In comparison, the percentage of the population aged 25 or older in the United States and Illinois with a bachelor's degree in 2023 was 21.8% (+/-0.1) and 22.8% (+/-0.2), respectively. The population aged 25 or older in the U.S. and Illinois with a graduate or professional degree in 2022, respectively, was 14.3% (+/-0.1) and 15.5% (+/-0.2).

Educational attainment data was sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, which are released annually.

As with any datasets that are estimates rather than exact counts, it is important to take into account the margins of error (listed in the column beside each figure) when drawing conclusions from the data.

Due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, instead of providing the standard 1-year data products, the Census Bureau released experimental estimates from the 1-year data in 2020. This includes a limited number of data tables for the nation, states, and the District of Columbia. The Census Bureau states that the 2020 ACS 1-year experimental tables use an experimental estimation methodology and should not be compared with other ACS data. For these reasons, and because data is not available for Champaign County, no data for 2020 is included in this Indicator.

For interested data users, the 2020 ACS 1-Year Experimental data release includes a dataset on Educational Attainment for the Population 25 Years and Over.

Sources: U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2023 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (16 October 2024).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2022 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (29 September 2023).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2021 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (6 October 2022).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2019 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (4 June 2021).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2018 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (4 June 2021).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2017 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2016 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (13 September 2018). U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2015 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (19 September 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2014 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2013 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2012 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2011 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2010 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2009 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2008 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2006 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).; U.S. Census Bureau; American Community Survey, 2005 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using American FactFinder; (16 March 2016).

In 2021, about ** percent of the United States population aged 25 to 34 years had attained a bachelor's degree or higher. In comparison, only ** percent of the U.S. population aged 65 years or older had a bachelor's degree.

United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: Population 25+ Years: Male: % Cumulative data was reported at 98.780 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 98.823 % for 2014. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: Population 25+ Years: Male: % Cumulative data is updated yearly, averaging 98.617 % from Dec 1970 (Median) to 2015, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 98.865 % in 2013 and a record low of 93.941 % in 1970. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: Population 25+ Years: Male: % Cumulative data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Education Statistics. The percentage of population ages 25 and over that attained or completed primary education.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; ;

As of 2022, there were approximately 4.86 million people in the United States who had completed their doctorate degree. Furthermore, there were 74.53 million people in the U.S. whose highest educational attainment was a high school degree.

In an impressive increase from years past, 39 percent of women in the United States had completed four years or more of college in 2022. This figure is up from 3.8 percent of women in 1940. A significant increase can also be seen in males, with 36.2 percent of the U.S. male population having completed four years or more of college in 2022, up from 5.5 percent in 1940.

4- and 2-year colleges

In the United States, college students are able to choose between attending a 2-year postsecondary program and a 4-year postsecondary program. Generally, attending a 2-year program results in an Associate’s Degree, and 4-year programs result in a Bachelor’s Degree.

Many 2-year programs are designed so that attendees can transfer to a college or university offering a 4-year program upon completing their Associate’s. Completion of a 4-year program is the generally accepted standard for entry-level positions when looking for a job.

Earnings after college

Factors such as gender, degree achieved, and the level of postsecondary education can have an impact on employment and earnings later in life. Some Bachelor’s degrees continue to attract more male students than female, particularly in STEM fields, while liberal arts degrees such as education, languages and literatures, and communication tend to see higher female attendance.

All of these factors have an impact on earnings after college, and despite nearly the same rate of attendance within the American population between males and females, men with a Bachelor’s Degree continue to have higher weekly earnings on average than their female counterparts.

United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Master's or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data was reported at 11.995 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 11.765 % for 2014. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Master's or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data is updated yearly, averaging 11.765 % from Dec 2013 (Median) to 2015, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 11.995 % in 2015 and a record low of 11.566 % in 2013. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Master's or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Education Statistics. The percentage of population ages 25 and over that attained or completed Master's or equivalent.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; ;

United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Bachelor's or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data was reported at 32.501 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 31.956 % for 2014. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Bachelor's or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data is updated yearly, averaging 31.956 % from Dec 2013 to 2015, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 32.501 % in 2015 and a record low of 31.661 % in 2013. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Bachelor's or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Education Statistics. The percentage of population ages 25 and over that attained or completed Bachelor's or equivalent.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; ;

This statistic shows the rate of educational attainment amongst 25 to 34 year olds in the United States each decade from 1940 to 2009. In 1940, 64 percent of 25 to 34 year olds didn't complete high school. In 2009, the share of people who didn't finish high school was down to 12 percent.

United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Upper Secondary: Population 25+ Years: Female: % Cumulative data was reported at 88.759 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 88.859 % for 2014. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Upper Secondary: Population 25+ Years: Female: % Cumulative data is updated yearly, averaging 87.226 % from Dec 1970 (Median) to 2015, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 88.859 % in 2014 and a record low of 66.800 % in 1970. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Upper Secondary: Population 25+ Years: Female: % Cumulative data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Education Statistics. The percentage of population ages 25 and over that attained or completed upper secondary education.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; ;

Graph and download economic data for Ratio of Female to Male Tertiary School Enrollment for the United States (SEENRTERTFMZSUSA) from 1971 to 2022 about enrolled, ratio, tertiary schooling, females, males, education, and USA.

United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: Population 25+ Years: Female: % Cumulative data was reported at 98.768 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 98.766 % for 2014. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: Population 25+ Years: Female: % Cumulative data is updated yearly, averaging 98.704 % from Dec 1970 (Median) to 2015, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 98.869 % in 2013 and a record low of 95.000 % in 1970. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: Population 25+ Years: Female: % Cumulative data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Education Statistics. The percentage of population ages 25 and over that attained or completed primary education.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; ;

Graph and download economic data for Labor Force Participation Rate - High School Graduates, No College, 25 Yrs. & over (LNS11327660) from Jan 1992 to Aug 2025 about secondary schooling, secondary, 25 years +, tertiary schooling, participation, education, labor force, labor, household survey, rate, and USA.

It's no secret that US university students often graduate with debt repayment obligations that far outstrip their employment and income prospects. While it's understood that students from elite colleges tend to earn more than graduates from less prestigious universities, the finer relationships between future income and university attendance are quite murky. In an effort to make educational investments less speculative, the US Department of Education has matched information from the student financial aid system with federal tax returns to create the College Scorecard dataset.

Kaggle is hosting the College Scorecard dataset in order to facilitate shared learning and collaboration. Insights from this dataset can help make the returns on higher education more transparent and, in turn, more fair.

Data Description

Here's a script showing an exploratory overview of some of the data.

college-scorecard-release-*.zip contains a compressed version of the same data available through Kaggle Scripts.

It consists of three components:

• All the raw data files released in version 1.40 of the college scorecard data
• Scorecard.csv, a single CSV file with all the years data combined. In it, we've converted categorical variables represented by integer keys in the original data to their labels and added a Year column
• database.sqlite, a SQLite database containing a single Scorecard table that contains the same information as Scorecard.csv

New to data exploration in R? Take the free, interactive DataCamp course, "Data Exploration With Kaggle Scripts," to learn the basics of visualizing data with ggplot. You'll also create your first Kaggle Scripts along the way.

About the Digest of Education StatisticsThe 2022 edition of the Digest of Education Statistics is the 58th in a series of publications initiated in 1962. The Digest has been issued annually except for combined editions for the years 1977–78, 1983–84, and 1985–86. Its primary purpose is to provide a compilation of statistical information covering the broad field of American education from prekindergarten through graduate school. The Digest includes a selection of data from many sources, both government and private, and draws especially on the results of surveys and activities carried out by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES). To qualify for inclusion in the Digest, material must be nationwide in scope and of current interest and value. The publication contains information on a variety of subjects in the field of education statistics, including the number of schools and colleges, teachers, enrollments, and graduates, in addition to data on educational attainment, finances, federal funds for education, libraries, and international comparisons. Supplemental information on population trends, attitudes on education, education characteristics of the labor force, government finances, and economic trends provides background for evaluating education data. The Digest contains important information on federal education funding, though more detailed information on federal activities is available from federal education program offices.The Digest contains tables organized into seven chapters: All Levels of Education, Elementary and Secondary Education, Postsecondary Education, Federal Funds for Education and Related Activities, Outcomes of Education, International Comparisons of Education, and Libraries and Use of Technology. Each chapter is divided into a number of topical subsections.About this DatasetThis dataset represents the tables from the Most Current Digest Tables page: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/current_tables.asp, as downloaded 2025-07-13.The folder system has three levels. Level 1 is the chapters of the data digest. Level 2 is the subsections of the chapters. Level 3 is a folder each for each table. Each table folder contains an excel file for the table.The top level folder contains a catalog csv with a cross walk between the folder name and the original table titles.There is also a folder for Machine Readable tables downloaded from this page in the top level folder: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/mrt_tables.asp.

In 2023, about four percent of the people with a Bachelor's degree or higher were living below the poverty line in the United States. This is far below the poverty rate of those without a high school diploma, which was 25.1 percent in 2023.

Context

The United States Census Bureau conducts regular surveys to assess education levels in the U.S. These surveys sample participants' highest levels of education (i.e. high school diploma, bachelor's degree, etc.) The attached CSV file aggregates data for the years 1995, 2005, and 2015.

Content

Data is organized into columns representing the survey year, age range, sex of participants, and education level. For example, [1995, 18_24, Male, ...] represents the 1995 survey for men ages 18-24.

It's worth noting that the surveys varied somewhat in granularity. The 2015 survey divided categories more finely (18-24, 25-29, 29-34...) while the 2005 and 1995 surveys were coarser (18-24, 25-34, ...). This could create some distortion depending on the analysis used.

Sources

Main

https://www.census.gov/topics/education/educational-attainment/data/tables.All.html

2015

Table 1. Educational Attainment of the Population 18 Years and Over, by Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 2015

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2015/demo/education-attainment/p20-578.html

2005

Table 6. Educational Attainment of Employed Civilians 18 to 64 Years, by Occupation, Age, Sex, Race, and Hispanic Origin: 2005

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/2005/demo/educational-attainment/cps-detailed-tables.html

1995

Educational Attainment in the United States: March 1995

https://www.census.gov/data/tables/1995/demo/educational-attainment/p20-489.html

This graph shows the educational attainment of the U.S. population from in 2018, according to ethnicity. Around 56.5 percent of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the U.S. have graduated from college or obtained a higher educational degree in 2018.

United States US: Educational Attainment: Doctoral or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Male: % Cumulative data was reported at 2.066 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 2.316 % for 2014. United States US: Educational Attainment: Doctoral or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Male: % Cumulative data is updated yearly, averaging 2.207 % from Dec 2013 (Median) to 2015, with 3 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 2.316 % in 2014 and a record low of 2.066 % in 2015. United States US: Educational Attainment: Doctoral or Equivalent: Population 25+ Years: Male: % Cumulative data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s USA – Table US.World Bank: Education Statistics. The percentage of population ages 25 and over that attained or completed Doctoral or equivalent.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; ;

The Educational Services sector comprises 13 subsectors of the US economy, ranging from public schools to testing and educational support services. Primary, secondary and postsecondary schools alone generate 92.0% of the sector's revenue. Most of these institutions rely entirely on government funding, and nearly three-quarters of the educational services revenue comes from public schools and public universities. Accordingly, strong federal, state and local support for all levels of education has driven revenue upward over the past five years. Expanding discretionary budgets made private schools and higher education more affordable for students and parents, but the Trump administration's changing policies have brought new complications. Still, substantial funding and skyrocketing investment returns for private nonprofit universities have elevated revenue. Revenue has climbed at a CAGR of 4.6% to an estimated $2.7 trillion through the end of 2025, when revenue will rise by 1.1%. Solid state and local government funding for education has helped support the sector's success despite fluctuating enrollment. Faltering birth rates are leading to lower headcounts in K-12 schools, and ballooning student debt has made many would-be college students skeptical of the return on investment of an expensive degree. While student loan forgiveness efforts slowed a decline in the number of college students, the new presidential administration's end to these efforts has begun to exacerbate price-based and quality-based competition among higher education institutions. President Trump's scrutiny of course curricula has made public funds harder to acquire for schools, and the administration's efforts to close the Department of Education have begun to deter would-be students from attending college. Trends in the domestic economy are set to move in the Educational Services sector's favor over the next five years as prospective students become better able to pay for rising tuition rates and premium education options. Government funding for primary, secondary and postsecondary institutions will continue to escalate through the next period, though lackluster enrollment will temper revenue growth. Public schools, which account for over half the sector's revenue, will continue to post losses and drag down the average profit for educational services. New school choice initiatives, including Texas's new, largest-ever voucher program, will make private schools more affordable for parents. However, heightened oversight and continued efforts to close the Department of Education will remain a significant pain point for many educational services. Overall, revenue is set to climb at a CAGR of 0.8% to $2.8 trillion through the end of 2030.