Last
year, 85 percent of adults age 25 and over had completed at least high school,
an all-time high, the U.S. Census Bureau reported today. Also in 2003, 27
percent of adults age 25 and over had a college degree, another record.
The percentage of non-Hispanic whites
(89 percent) and blacks (80 percent) who had a high school diploma or
higher marked new highs. The proportion of blacks rose by 10 percentage
points from 1993 to 2003, while non-Hispanic whites saw an increase of
5 percentage points in this category.
The report, Educational
Attainment in the United States: 2003, [PDF] said women made large
gains in earning college degrees. Over the past decade, women with a bachelor’s
degree or higher jumped nearly 7 percentage points, from 19 percent to
26 percent. During the same time, men had a 4-percentage-point increase
going from 25 percent to 29 percent.
For the second year in a row, women had
a slightly higher proportion of high school graduates (85 percent) than
men (84 percent).
Other highlights for 2003:
- The states with the highest high school graduation rates were New
Hampshire, Minnesota and Wyoming, all around 92 percent.
- In Washington, D.C., about 46 percent of people 25 and over had at
least a bachelor’s degree, higher than any state. Massachusetts,
Maryland and Colorado led all states at about 38 percent.
- Among races, Asians had the highest proportion of college graduates
at 50 percent. About 30 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 17 percent
of blacks had a least a bachelor’s degree. In 1993, 24 percent
of non-Hispanic whites and 12 percent of blacks were college graduates.
- Hispanics with high school diplomas rose from 53 percent in 1993 to
57 percent. About 11 percent had bachelor’s degrees, up from 9
percent.
- The proportion of foreign-born people with a high school diploma was
67 percent. For natives, it was 88 percent. However, the proportion
with a bachelor’s degree was about 27 percent for the two groups.
- In 2002, average earnings by highest level of education were: for
those with advanced degrees, $72,824; for bachelor’s degree-holders,
$51,194; for high school graduates, $27,280; and for nongraduates, $18,826.
The data are from the Annual Social and
Economic Supplement to the 2003 Current Population Survey. For further
information on the source of the data and accuracy of the estimates, including
standard errors and confidence intervals, go to Appendix G of <http://www.census.gov/apsd/techdoc/cps/cpsmar03.pdf>.
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