In 2024, about 38.7 percent of the U.S. population who were aged 25 and above had graduated from college or another higher education institution, a slight increase from 38.3 percent 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-Americans and Pacific Islanders had the highest level of education, on average, while Massachusetts and the District of Columbia 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.

United States US: Primary Education: Pupils data was reported at 24,785,697.041 Person in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 24,538,371.000 Person for 2014. United States US: Primary Education: Pupils data is updated yearly, averaging 23,212,276.000 Person from Dec 1971 (Median) to 2015, with 41 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 25,297,600.000 Person in 2001 and a record low of 19,169,000.000 Person in 1979. United States US: Primary Education: Pupils 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. Primary education pupils is the total number of pupils enrolled at primary level in public and private schools.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Sum; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

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: almost 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 2024 was 22.1% (+/-0.1) and 23.3% (+/-0.2), respectively. The population aged 25 or older in the U.S. and Illinois with a graduate or professional degree in 2024, respectively, was 14.7% (+/-0.1) and 15.9% (+/-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, 2024 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Table S1501; generated by CCRPC staff; using data.census.gov; (26 November 2025).; 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).

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.

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; ;

This Public Schools feature dataset is composed of all Public elementary and secondary education facilities in the United States as defined by the Common Core of Data (CCD, https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/ ), National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, https://nces.ed.gov ), US Department of Education for the 2017-2018 school year. This includes all Kindergarten through 12th grade schools as tracked by the Common Core of Data. Included in this dataset are military schools in US territories and referenced in the city field with an APO or FPO address. DOD schools represented in the NCES data that are outside of the United States or US territories have been omitted. This feature class contains all MEDS/MEDS+ as approved by NGA. Complete field and attribute information is available in the ”Entities and Attributes” metadata section. Geographical coverage is depicted in the thumbnail above and detailed in the Place Keyword section of the metadata. This release includes the addition of 3065 new records, modifications to the spatial location and/or attribution of 99,287 records, and removal of 2996 records not present in the NCES CCD data.

In an impressive increase from years past, 40.1 percent of women in the United States had completed four years or more of college in 2024. This figure is up from 3.8 percent of women in 1940. A significant increase can also be seen in males, with 37.1 percent of the U.S. male population having completed four years or more of college in 2024, 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 Competed Short-Cycle Tertiary: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data was reported at 42.338 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 41.890 % for 2014. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Competed Short-Cycle Tertiary: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data is updated yearly, averaging 39.137 % from Dec 2004 (Median) to 2015, with 11 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 42.338 % in 2015 and a record low of 36.127 % in 2004. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Competed Short-Cycle Tertiary: 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 short-cycle tertiary education.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; ;

As of June 2025, 98 percent of internet users in the United States were college graduates or had some college degree. On the contrary, 93 percent of them had a high school or less education.

There were *** institutions of degree-granting higher education in the state of California during the 2022/23 academic year. Of these, *** were four-year program institutions and *** were two-year institutions. California had the most higher education institutions of any state in that year.

Context

The Colleges and Universities feature class/shapefile is composed of all Post Secondary Education facilities as defined by the Integrated Post Secondary Education System (IPEDS, http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/), National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, https://nces.ed.gov/), US Department of Education for the 2018-2019 school year. Included are Doctoral/Research Universities, Masters Colleges and Universities, Baccalaureate Colleges, Associates Colleges, Theological seminaries, Medical Schools and other health care professions, Schools of engineering and technology, business and management, art, music, design, Law schools, Teachers colleges, Tribal colleges, and other specialized institutions. Overall, this data layer covers all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and other assorted U.S. territories. This feature class contains all MEDS/MEDS+ as approved by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Homeland Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP) Team. Complete field and attribute information is available in the ”Entities and Attributes” metadata section. Geographical coverage is depicted in the thumbnail above and detailed in the "Place Keyword" section of the metadata. This feature class does not have a relationship class but is related to Supplemental Colleges. Colleges and Universities that are not included in the NCES IPEDS data are added to the Supplemental Colleges feature class when found. This release includes the addition of 175 new records, the removal of 468 no longer reported by NCES, and modifications to the spatial location and/or attribution of 6682 records.

Acknowlegement

Foto von Leon Wu auf Unsplash

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; ;

The Institute of Education Sciences (IES) is the statistics, research, and evaluation arm of the U.S. Department of Education. We are independent and non-partisan. Our mission is to provide scientific evidence on which to ground education practice and policy and to share this information in formats that are useful and accessible to educators, parents, policymakers, researchers, and the public.

IES conducts six broad types of work that addresses school readiness and education from infancy through adulthood and includes special populations such as English Learners and students with disabilities.

• We provide data that describes how well the United States is educating its students. We collect and analyze official statistics on the condition of education, including adult education and literacy; support international assessments; and carry out the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP).

 • We conduct surveys and sponsor research projects to understand where education needs improvement and how these improvements might be made.  Our longitudinal surveys provide nationally representative data on how students are progressing through school and entering the workforce. Our cross-sectional surveys provide a snapshot of how students and the education system are doing at specific points in time. We fund research that uses these and other data to gain a deeper understanding of the nature and context of needed education improvements.

 • We fund development and rigorous testing of new approaches for improving education outcomes for all students.  We support development of practical solutions for education from the earliest design stages through pilot studies and rigorous testing at scale. With IES support, researchers are learning what works for improving instruction, student behavior, teacher learning, and school and system organization.

 • We conduct large-scale evaluations of federal education programs and policies.  Our evaluations address complex issues of national importance, such as the impact of alternative pathways to teacher preparation, teacher and leader evaluation systems, school improvement initiatives, and school choice programs.

 • We provide resources to increase use of data and research in education decision making.  Through the What Works Clearinghouse, we conduct independent reviews of research on what works in education. The Regional Educational Laboratories offer opportunities to learn what works as well as coaching, training, and other support for research use. Our Statewide Longitudinal Data System grants enable states to more efficiently track education outcomes and provide useful, timely information to decision makers.

 • We support advancement of statistics and research through specialized training and development of methods and measures.  We fund pre-doctoral and post-doctoral training programs, as well as database training and short courses on cutting-edge topics for working statisticians and researchers. Our empirical work on new methods and measures ensures continued advances in the accuracy, usefulness, and cost-effectiveness of education data collections and research.

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.

There were ***** recognized postsecondary degree-granting institutions across the United States active during the 2022/23 academic year. This was a decrease from a peak of ***** colleges a decade earlier Higher education in the U.S. Higher education in the United States refers to colleges and universities in the country. American colleges have some unique feature relative to the rest of the world. These include NCAA sports, Greek life, and high attendance costs. However, a large majority of the world’s best universities are located in the U.S. Some of these universities include the eight Ivy League schools, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Stanford University. Higher education costs The cost of tuition in the United States has increased significantly over the last few decades. As a consequence of high fees, it is commonplace for students to obtain loans to fund their education. Looking ahead, federal government outlays for higher education are not expected to increase in the coming years. At the local level, California had the highest of highest expenditure on higher education among U.S. states. California also had the most post-secondary education institutions in the country.

About this dataset

This dataset represents public schools composed of all public elementary and secondary education in the United States as defined by the Common Core of Data, National Center for Education Statistics, US Department of Education. This includes all kindergarten through 12th-grade schools as tracked by the Common Core of Data. Included in this dataset are the military schools abroad and referenced in the city field with an APO or FPO address. Also referenced in the state field with the abbreviation AE.

Please note that the APO and FPO school points are located at 0,0. This feature class contains all MEDS/MEDS+ as approved by NGA. For each field, the 'Not Available' and 'NULL' designations are used to indicate that the data for the particular record and field is currently unavailable and will be populated when and if that data becomes available.

This dataset was created by Homeland Infrastructure Foundation and contains around 103,000 samples along with NCES School ID, technical information, and other features such as:

• Type
• Status
• Population
• and more.

How to use this dataset

• Exploratory Data Analysis
• Study the influence of Countyfips on X

Acknowledgments

If you use this dataset in your research, please credit Homeland Infrastructure Foundation

Start A New Notebook!

Historical dataset showing U.S. education spending by year from 1972 to 2020.

United States US: Secondary Education: General Pupils data was reported at 24,417,185.769 Person in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 24,229,777.000 Person for 2014. United States US: Secondary Education: General Pupils data is updated yearly, averaging 21,754,500.000 Person from Dec 1971 (Median) to 2015, with 40 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 24,731,027.000 Person in 2007 and a record low of 19,270,000.000 Person in 1991. United States US: Secondary Education: General Pupils 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. Secondary general pupils are the number of secondary students enrolled in general education programs, including teacher training.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Sum; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

Includes data files and supplemental information. Supplemental information includes a reproducible RMarkdown file, an Excel sheet with metadata, and complete webpage files. Please not that CCD nonfiscal documentation files have been downloaded manually.From the Common Core of Data website:The Common Core of Data (CCD) is the Department of Education's primary database on public elementary and secondary education in the United States. CCD is a comprehensive, annual, national database of all public elementary and secondary schools and school districts.Information on the Common Core of Data (CCD)The primary purpose of the CCD is to provide basic information on public elementary and secondary schools, local education agencies (LEAs), and state education agencies (SEAs) for each state, the District of Columbia, and the outlying territories with a U.S. relationship. CCD is composed of two components: Nonfiscal CCD and Fiscal CCD.

Author's Note 2019/04/20: Revisiting this project, I recently discovered the incredibly comprehensive API produced by the Urban Institute. It achieves all of the goals laid out for this dataset in wonderful detail. I recommend that users interested pay a visit to their site.

Context

This dataset is designed to bring together multiple facets of U.S. education data into one convenient CSV (states_all.csv).

Contents

• states_all.csv: The primary data file. Contains aggregates from all state-level sources in one CSV.

• output_files/states_all_extended.csv: The contents of states_all.csv with additional data related to race and gender.

Column Breakdown

Identification

• PRIMARY_KEY: A combination of the year and state name.
• YEAR
• STATE

Enrollment

A breakdown of students enrolled in schools by school year.

• GRADES_PK: Number of students in Pre-Kindergarten education.

• GRADES_4: Number of students in fourth grade.

• GRADES_8: Number of students in eighth grade.

• GRADES_12: Number of students in twelfth grade.

• GRADES_1_8: Number of students in the first through eighth grades.

• GRADES 9_12: Number of students in the ninth through twelfth grades.

• GRADES_ALL: The count of all students in the state. Comparable to ENROLL in the financial data (which is the U.S. Census Bureau's estimate for students in the state).

The extended version of states_all contains additional columns that breakdown enrollment by race and gender. For example:

• G06_A_A: Total number of sixth grade students.

• G06_AS_M: Number of sixth grade male students whose ethnicity was classified as "Asian".

• G08_AS_A_READING: Average reading score of eighth grade students whose ethnicity was classified as "Asian".

The represented races include AM (American Indian or Alaska Native), AS (Asian), HI (Hispanic/Latino), BL (Black or African American), WH (White), HP (Hawaiian Native/Pacific Islander), and TR (Two or More Races). The represented genders include M (Male) and F (Female).

Financials

A breakdown of states by revenue and expenditure.

• ENROLL: The U.S. Census Bureau's count for students in the state. Should be comparable to GRADES_ALL (which is the NCES's estimate for students in the state).

• TOTAL REVENUE: The total amount of revenue for the state.

  • FEDERAL_REVENUE
  • STATE_REVENUE
  • LOCAL_REVENUE

• TOTAL_EXPENDITURE: The total expenditure for the state.

  • INSTRUCTION_EXPENDITURE

  • SUPPORT_SERVICES_EXPENDITURE

  • CAPITAL_OUTLAY_EXPENDITURE

  • OTHER_EXPENDITURE

Academic Achievement

A breakdown of student performance as assessed by the corresponding exams (math and reading, grades 4 and 8).

• AVG_MATH_4_SCORE: The state's average score for fourth graders taking the NAEP math exam.

• AVG_MATH_8_SCORE: The state's average score for eight graders taking the NAEP math exam.

• AVG_READING_4_SCORE: The state's average score for fourth graders taking the NAEP reading exam.

• AVG_READING_8_SCORE: The state's average score for eighth graders taking the NAEP reading exam.

Data Processing

The original sources can be found here:

# Enrollment
https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/stnfis.asp
# Financials
https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/school-finances/data/tables.html
# Academic Achievement
https://www.nationsreportcard.gov/ndecore/xplore/NDE

Data was aggregated using a Python program I wrote. The code (as well as additional project information) can be found [here][1].

Methodology Notes

• Spreadsheets for NCES enrollment data for 2014, 2011, 2010, and 2009 were modified to place key data on the same sheet, making scripting easier.

• The column 'ENROLL' represents the U.S. Census Bureau data value (financial data), while the column 'GRADES_ALL' represents the NCES data value (demographic data). Though the two organizations correspond on this matter, these values (which are ostensibly the same) do vary. Their documentation chalks this up to differences in membership (i.e. what is and is not a fourth grade student).

• Enrollment data from NCES has seen a number of changes across survey years. One of the more notable is that data on student gender does not appear to have been collected until 2009. The information in states_all_extended.csv reflects this.

• NAEP test score data is only available for certain years

• The current version of this data is concerned with state-level patterns. It is the author's hope that future versions will allow for school district-level granularity.

Acknowledgements

Data is sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES).

Licensing Notes

The licensing of these datasets state that it must not be us...