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.

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.

This dataset is imported from the US Department of Commerce, National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) and its "Data Explorer" site. The underlying data comes from the US Census

1. dataset: Specifies the month and year of the survey as a string, in "Mon YYYY" format. The CPS is a monthly survey, and NTIA periodically sponsors Supplements to that survey.

2. variable: Contains the standardized name of the variable being measured. NTIA identified the availability of similar data across Supplements, and assigned variable names to ease time-series comparisons.

3. description: Provides a concise description of the variable.

4. universe: Specifies the variable representing the universe of persons or households included in the variable's statistics. The specified variable is always included in the file. The only variables lacking universes are isPerson and isHouseholder, as they are themselves the broadest universes measured in the CPS.

5. A large number of *Prop, *PropSE, *Count, and *CountSE columns comprise the remainder of the columns. For each demographic being measured (see below), four statistics are produced, including the estimated proportion of the group for which the variable is true (*Prop), the standard error of that proportion (*PropSE), the estimated number of persons or households in that group for which the variable is true (*Count), and the standard error of that count (*CountSE).

DEMOGRAPHIC CATEGORIES

1. us: The usProp, usPropSE, usCount, and usCountSE columns contain statistics about all persons and households in the universe (which represents the population of the fifty states and the District and Columbia). For example, to see how the prevelance of Internet use by Americans has changed over time, look at the usProp column for each survey's internetUser variable.

2. age: The age category is divided into five ranges: ages 3-14, 15-24, 25-44, 45-64, and 65+. The CPS only includes data on Americans ages 3 and older. Also note that household reference persons must be at least 15 years old, so the age314* columns are blank for household-based variables. Those columns are also blank for person-based variables where the universe is "isAdult" (or a sub-universe of "isAdult"), as the CPS defines adults as persons ages 15 or older. Finally, note that some variables where children are technically in the univese will show zero values for the age314* columns. This occurs in cases where a variable simply cannot be true of a child (e.g. the workInternetUser variable, as the CPS presumes children under 15 are not eligible to work), but the topic of interest is relevant to children (e.g. locations of Internet use).

3. work: Employment status is divided into "Employed," "Unemployed," and "NILF" (Not in the Labor Force). These three categories reflect the official BLS definitions used in official labor force statistics. Note that employment status is only recorded in the CPS for individuals ages 15 and older. As a result, children are excluded from the universe when calculating statistics by work status, even if they are otherwise considered part of the universe for the variable of interest.

4. income: The income category represents annual family income, rather than just an individual person's income. It is divided into five ranges: below $25K, $25K-49,999, $50K-74,999, $75K-99,999, and $100K or more. Statistics by income group are only available in this file for Supplements beginning in 2010; prior to 2010, family income range is available in public use datasets, but is not directly comparable to newer datasets due to the 2010 introduction of the practice of allocating "don't know," "refused," and other responses that result in missing data. Prior to 2010, family income is unkown for approximately 20 percent of persons, while in 2010 the Census Bureau began imputing likely income ranges to replace missing data.

5. education: Educational attainment is divided into "No Diploma," "High School Grad," "Some College," and "College Grad." High school graduates are considered to include GED completers, and those with some college include community college attendees (and graduates) and those who have attended certain postsecondary vocational or technical schools--in other words, it signifies additional education beyond high school, but short of attaining a bachelor's degree or equivilent. Note that educational attainment is only recorded in the CPS for individuals ages 15 and older. As a result, children are excluded from the universe when calculating statistics by education, even if they are otherwise considered part of the universe for the variable of interest.

6. sex: "Male" and "Female" are the two groups in this category. The CPS does not currently provide response options for intersex individuals.

7. race: This category includes "White," "Black," "Hispanic," "Asian," "Am Indian," and "Other" groups. The CPS asks about Hispanic origin separately from racial identification; as a result, all persons identifying as Hispanic are in the Hispanic group, regardless of how else they identify. Furthermore, all non-Hispanic persons identifying with two or more races are tallied in the "Other" group (along with other less-prevelant responses). The Am Indian group includes both American Indians and Alaska Natives.

8. disability: Disability status is divided into "No" and "Yes" groups, indicating whether the person was identified as having a disability. Disabilities screened for in the CPS include hearing impairment, vision impairment (not sufficiently correctable by glasses), cognitive difficulties arising from physical, mental, or emotional conditions, serious difficulty walking or climbing stairs, difficulty dressing or bathing, and difficulties performing errands due to physical, mental, or emotional conditions. The Census Bureau began collecting data on disability status in June 2008; accordingly, this category is unavailable in Supplements prior to that date. Note that disability status is only recorded in the CPS for individuals ages 15 and older. As a result, children are excluded from the universe when calculating statistics by disability status, even if they are otherwise considered part of the universe for the variable of interest.

9. metro: Metropolitan status is divided into "No," "Yes," and "Unkown," reflecting information in the dataset about the household's location. A household located within a metropolitan statistical area is assigned to the Yes group, and those outside such areas are assigned to No. However, due to the risk of de-anonymization, the metropolitan area status of certain households is unidentified in public use datasets. In those cases, the Census Bureau has determined that revealing this geographic information poses a disclosure risk. Such households are tallied in the Unknown group.

10. scChldHome:

The following data set is information obtained about counties in the United States from 2010 through 2019 through the United States Census Bureau. Information described in the data includes the age distributions, the education levels, employment statistics, ethnicity percents, houseold information, income, and other miscellneous statistics. (Values are denoted as -1, if the data is not available)

Data Dictionary

There were approximately 18.58 million college students in the U.S. in 2022, with around 13.49 million enrolled in public colleges and a further 5.09 million students enrolled in private colleges. The figures are projected to remain relatively constant over the next few years.

What is the most expensive college in the U.S.? The overall number of higher education institutions in the U.S. totals around 4,000, and California is the state with the most. One important factor that students – and their parents – must consider before choosing a college is cost. With annual expenses totaling almost 78,000 U.S. dollars, Harvey Mudd College in California was the most expensive college for the 2021-2022 academic year. There are three major costs of college: tuition, room, and board. The difference in on-campus and off-campus accommodation costs is often negligible, but they can change greatly depending on the college town.

The differences between public and private colleges Public colleges, also called state colleges, are mostly funded by state governments. Private colleges, on the other hand, are not funded by the government but by private donors and endowments. Typically, private institutions are  much more expensive. Public colleges tend to offer different tuition fees for students based on whether they live in-state or out-of-state, while private colleges have the same tuition cost for every student.