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.

United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data was reported at 98.774 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 98.793 % for 2014. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: Population 25+ Years: Total: % Cumulative data is updated yearly, averaging 98.677 % from Dec 1970 (Median) to 2015, with 13 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 98.867 % in 2013 and a record low of 94.500 % in 1970. United States US: Educational Attainment: At Least Completed Primary: 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 primary education.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; ;

US: School Enrollment: Preprimary: Female: % Gross data was reported at 68.891 % in 2015. This records a decrease from the previous number of 70.205 % for 2014. US: School Enrollment: Preprimary: Female: % Gross data is updated yearly, averaging 63.943 % from Dec 1981 (Median) to 2015, with 17 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 70.447 % in 1996 and a record low of 51.131 % in 1981. US: School Enrollment: Preprimary: Female: % Gross 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. Gross enrollment ratio is the ratio of total enrollment, regardless of age, to the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the level of education shown. Preprimary education refers to programs at the initial stage of organized instruction, designed primarily to introduce very young children to a school-type environment and to provide a bridge between home and school.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

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.

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.

United States US: School Enrollment: Primary: Male: % Net data was reported at 92.425 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 91.790 % for 2014. United States US: School Enrollment: Primary: Male: % Net data is updated yearly, averaging 93.015 % from Dec 1986 (Median) to 2015, with 25 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 98.628 % in 1991 and a record low of 90.756 % in 2004. United States US: School Enrollment: Primary: Male: % Net 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. Net enrollment rate is the ratio of children of official school age who are enrolled in school to the population of the corresponding official school age. Primary education provides children with basic reading, writing, and mathematics skills along with an elementary understanding of such subjects as history, geography, natural science, social science, art, and music.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

The American Community Survey Education Tabulation (ACS-ED) is a custom tabulation of the ACS produced for the National Center of Education Statistics (NCES) by the U.S. Census Bureau. The ACS-ED provides a rich collection of social, economic, demographic, and housing characteristics for school systems, school-age children, and the parents of school-age children. In addition to focusing on school-age children, the ACS-ED provides enrollment iterations for children enrolled in public school. The data profiles include percentages (along with associated margins of error) that allow for comparison of school district-level conditions across the U.S. For more information about the NCES ACS-ED collection, visit the NCES Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program at: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/Demographic/ACS

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.

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: Government Expenditure on Primary Education: % of Government Expenditure on Education data was reported at 30.965 % in 2014. This records a decrease from the previous number of 31.109 % for 2013. United States US: Government Expenditure on Primary Education: % of Government Expenditure on Education data is updated yearly, averaging 31.109 % from Dec 2010 (Median) to 2014, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 32.422 % in 2010 and a record low of 30.963 % in 2012. United States US: Government Expenditure on Primary Education: % of Government Expenditure on Education 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. Expenditure on primary education is expressed as a percentage of total general government expenditure on education. General government usually refers to local, regional and central governments.; ; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics.; Median;

United States US: Government Expenditure on Education: Total: % of Government Expenditure data was reported at 13.452 % in 2014. This records an increase from the previous number of 13.277 % for 2013. United States US: Government Expenditure on Education: Total: % of Government Expenditure data is updated yearly, averaging 13.277 % from Dec 2010 (Median) to 2014, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 13.452 % in 2014 and a record low of 12.933 % in 2011. United States US: Government Expenditure on Education: Total: % of Government Expenditure data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s United States – Table US.World Bank.WDI: Education Statistics. General government expenditure on education (current, capital, and transfers) is expressed as a percentage of total general government expenditure on all sectors (including health, education, social services, etc.). It includes expenditure funded by transfers from international sources to government. General government usually refers to local, regional and central governments.; ; United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Institute for Statistics.; Median;

The National Reporting System for Adult Education (NRS) is administered by the Division of Adult Education and Literacy in the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education at the U.S. Department of Education. Aggregated data, data from individual US states and territories, and narrative reports, all covering program years 2000-2022, were downloaded from https://nrs.ed.gov/ between 2025-02-06 and 2025-02-09. Aggregated reports were uploaded to Data Lumos as both regular files and a zipped folder; state data tables were only uploaded as a zipped folder, due to the high number of individual files. Total, there are 11,206 files and 628 folders in the entire dataset, due to the way it was structured on the original website.

This dataset contains data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Academic Library Survey, which was gathered every two years from 1996 - 2014, and annually in IPEDS starting in 2014 (this dataset has continued to only merge data every two years, following the original schedule). This data was merged, transformed, and used for research by Starr Hoffman and Samantha Godbey.This data was merged using R; R scripts for this merge can be made available upon request. Some variables changed names or definitions during this time; a view of these variables over time is provided in the related Figshare Project. Carnegie Classification changed several times during this period; all Carnegie classifications were crosswalked to the 2000 classification version; that information is also provided in the related Figshare Project. This data was used for research published in several articles, conference papers, and posters starting in 2018 (some of this research used an older version of the dataset which was deposited in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas's repository).SourcesAll data sources were downloaded from the National Center for Education Statistics website https://nces.ed.gov/. Individual datasets and years accessed are listed below.[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Academic Libraries component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Academic Libraries Survey (ALS) Public Use Data File, Library Statistics Program, (2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996), https://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/aca_data.asp[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Institutional Characteristics component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fall Enrollment component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006, 2004, 2002, 2000, 1998, 1996), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Human Resources component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2020, 2018, 2016, 2014, 2012, 2010, 2008, 2006), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Employees Assigned by Position component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (2004, 2002), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7[dataset] U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Fall Staff component, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), (1999, 1997, 1995), https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/login.aspx?gotoReportId=7

United States US: School Enrollment: Secondary: Male: % Net data was reported at 89.513 % in 2015. This records an increase from the previous number of 87.832 % for 2014. United States US: School Enrollment: Secondary: Male: % Net data is updated yearly, averaging 87.442 % from Dec 1987 (Median) to 2015, with 21 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 89.513 % in 2015 and a record low of 85.450 % in 2002. United States US: School Enrollment: Secondary: Male: % Net 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. Net enrollment rate is the ratio of children of official school age who are enrolled in school to the population of the corresponding official school age. Secondary education completes the provision of basic education that began at the primary level, and aims at laying the foundations for lifelong learning and human development, by offering more subject- or skill-oriented instruction using more specialized teachers.; ; UNESCO Institute for Statistics; Weighted average; Each economy is classified based on the classification of World Bank Group's fiscal year 2018 (July 1, 2017-June 30, 2018).

The National Center for Education Statistics' (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimate (EDGE) program develops annually updated point locations (latitude and longitude) for public elementary and secondary schools included in the NCES Common Core of Data (CCD). The CCD program annually collects administrative and fiscal data about all public schools, school districts, and state education agencies in the United States. The data are supplied by state education agency officials and include basic directory and contact information for schools and school districts, as well as characteristics about student demographics, number of teachers, school grade span, and various other administrative conditions. CCD school and agency point locations are derived from reported information about the physical location of schools and agency administrative offices. The point locations and administrative attributes in this data layer represent the most current CCD collection. For more information about NCES school point data, see: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/Geographic/SchoolLocations. For more information about these CCD attributes, as well as additional attributes not included, see: https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/files.asp.Notes:-1 or MIndicates that the data are missing.-2 or NIndicates that the data are not applicable.-9Indicates that the data do not meet NCES data quality standards.Collections are available for the following years:2022-232021-222020-212019-202018-192017-18All information contained in this file is in the public domain. Data users are advised to review NCES program documentation and feature class metadata to understand the limitations and appropriate use of these data. Collections are available for the following years:

"Enrollment counts are based on the October 31 Audited Register for the 2017-18 to 2019-20 school years. To account for the delay in the start of the school year, enrollment counts are based on the November 13 Audited Register for 2020-21 and the November 12 Audited Register for 2021-22. * Please note that October 31 (and November 12-13) enrollment is not audited for charter schools or Pre-K Early Education Centers (NYCEECs). Charter schools are required to submit enrollment as of BEDS Day, the first Wednesday in October, to the New York State Department of Education." Enrollment counts in the Demographic Snapshot will likely exceed operational enrollment counts due to the fact that long-term absence (LTA) students are excluded for funding purposes. Data on students with disabilities, English Language Learners, students' povery status, and students' Economic Need Value are as of the June 30 for each school year except in 2021-22. Data on SWDs, ELLs, Poverty, and ENI in the 2021-22 school year are as of March 7, 2022. 3-K and Pre-K enrollment totals include students in both full-day and half-day programs. Four-year-old students enrolled in Family Childcare Centers are categorized as 3K students for the purposes of this report. All schools listed are as of the 2021-22 school year. Schools closed before 2021-22 are not included in the school level tab but are included in the data for citywide, borough, and district. Programs and Pre-K NYC Early Education Centers (NYCEECs) are not included on the school-level tab. Due to missing demographic information in rare cases at the time of the enrollment snapshot, demographic categories do not always add up to citywide totals. Students with disabilities are defined as any child receiving an Individualized Education Program (IEP) as of the end of the school year (or March 7 for 2021-22). NYC DOE "Poverty" counts are based on the number of students with families who have qualified for free or reduced price lunch, or are eligible for Human Resources Administration (HRA) benefits. In previous years, the poverty indicator also included students enrolled in a Universal Meal School (USM), where all students automatically qualified, with the exception of middle schools, D75 schools and Pre-K centers. In 2017-18, all students in NYC schools became eligible for free lunch. In order to better reflect free and reduced price lunch status, the poverty indicator does not include student USM status, and retroactively applies this rule to previous years. "The school’s Economic Need Index is the average of its students’ Economic Need Values. The Economic Need Index (ENI) estimates the percentage of students facing economic hardship. The 2014-15 school year is the first year we provide ENI estimates. The metric is calculated as follows: * The student’s Economic Need Value is 1.0 if: o The student is eligible for public assistance from the NYC Human Resources Administration (HRA); o The student lived in temporary housing in the past four years; or o The student is in high school, has a home language other than English, and entered the NYC DOE for the first time within the last four years. * Otherwise, the student’s Economic Need Value is based on the percentage of families (with school-age children) in the student’s census tract whose income is below the poverty level, as estimated by the American Community Survey 5-Year estimate (2020 ACS estimates were used in calculations for 2021-22 ENI). The student’s Economic Need Value equals this percentage divided by 100. Due to differences in the timing of when student demographic, address and census data were pulled, ENI values may vary, slightly, from the ENI values reported in the School Quality Reports. In previous years, student census tract data was based on students’ addresses at the time of ENI calculation. Beginning in 2018-19, census tract data is based on students’ addresses as of the Audited Register date of the g

The National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimate (EDGE) program develops annually updated school district boundary composite files that include public elementary, secondary, and unified school district boundaries clipped to the U.S. shoreline. School districts are special-purpose governments and administrative units designed by state and local officials to provide public education for local residents. District boundaries are collected for NCES by the U.S. Census Bureau to develop demographic estimates and to support educational research and program administration. The NCES Common Core of Data (CCD) program is an annual collection of basic administrative characteristics for all public schools, school districts, and state education agencies in the United States. These characteristics are reported by state education officials and include directory information, number of students, number of teachers, grade span, and other conditions. The administrative attributes in this layer were developed from the most current CCD collection available. For more information about NCES school district boundaries, see: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/Geographic/DistrictBoundaries. For more information about CCD school district attributes, see: https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/files.asp.Notes:-1 or MIndicates that the data are missing.-2 or NIndicates that the data are not applicable.-9Indicates that the data do not meet NCES data quality standards.Collections are available for the following years:2022-232021-222020-212019-202018-192017-18All information contained in this file is in the public domain. Data users are advised to review NCES program documentation and feature class metadata to understand the limitations and appropriate use of these data.

Graph and download economic data for Civilian Labor Force: College Graduates: Advanced Degree: Master's Degree and Higher, 16 to 17 years (CGADL1617) from May 2015 to Jun 2025 about 16 to 17 years, master's degree, tertiary schooling, civilian, education, labor force, labor, household survey, and USA.

This layer shows Educational Attainment. This is shown by state and county boundaries. This service contains the 2018-2022 release of data from the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year data, and contains estimates and margins of error. There are also additional calculated attributes related to this topic, which can be mapped or used within analysis. This layer is symbolized to show the Population 25 years and over - Bachelor's Degree or higher (%). To see the full list of attributes available in this service, go to the "Data" tab, and choose "Fields" at the top right. Current Vintage: 2018-2022ACS Table(s): DP02Data downloaded from: Census Bureau's API for American Community Survey Date of API call: January 18, 2022National Figures: data.census.govThe United States Census Bureau's American Community Survey (ACS):About the SurveyGeography & ACSTechnical DocumentationNews & UpdatesThis ready-to-use layer can be used within ArcGIS Pro, ArcGIS Online, its configurable apps, dashboards, Story Maps, custom apps, and mobile apps. Data can also be exported for offline workflows. Please cite the Census and ACS when using this data.Data Note from the Census:Data are based on a sample and are subject to sampling variability. The degree of uncertainty for an estimate arising from sampling variability is represented through the use of a margin of error. The value shown here is the 90 percent margin of error. The margin of error can be interpreted as providing a 90 percent probability that the interval defined by the estimate minus the margin of error and the estimate plus the margin of error (the lower and upper confidence bounds) contains the true value. In addition to sampling variability, the ACS estimates are subject to nonsampling error (for a discussion of nonsampling variability, see Accuracy of the Data). The effect of nonsampling error is not represented in these tables.Data Processing Notes:Boundaries come from the Cartographic Boundaries via US Census TIGER geodatabases. Boundaries are updated at the same time as the data updates, and the boundary vintage appropriately matches the data vintage as specified by the Census. These are Census boundaries with water and/or coastlines clipped for cartographic purposes. For state and county boundaries, the water and coastlines are derived from the coastlines of the 500k TIGER Cartographic Boundary Shapefiles. The original AWATER and ALAND fields are still available as attributes within the data table (units are square meters). The States layer contains 52 records - all US states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico. The Counties (and equivalent) layer contains 3221 records - all counties and equivalent, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico municipios. See Areas Published. Percentages and derived counts, and associated margins of error, are calculated values (that can be identified by the "_calc_" stub in the field name), and abide by the specifications defined by the American Community Survey.Field alias names were created based on the Table Shells.Margin of error (MOE) values of -555555555 in the API (or "*****" (five asterisks) on data.census.gov) are displayed as 0 in this dataset. The estimates associated with these MOEs have been controlled to independent counts in the ACS weighting and have zero sampling error. So, the MOEs are effectively zeroes, and are treated as zeroes in MOE calculations. Other negative values on the API, such as -222222222, -666666666, -888888888, and -999999999, all represent estimates or MOEs that can't be calculated or can't be published, usually due to small sample sizes. All of these are rendered in this dataset as null (blank) values.