Chapter 8: State Indicators

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Chapter 8:


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Higher Education

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State Indicators

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Higher Education

Select Indicator:

Quartiles | Findings | Description

Bachelor's degrees conferred per 1,000 18- to 24-year-olds: 2000

Quartiles

Quartile groups for bachelor's degrees conferred per 1,000 18–24-year-olds: 2000*

1st Quartile	2nd Quartile	3rd Quartile	4th Quartile
(104.5 - 55.9)	(55.6 - 48.4)	(48.4 - 39.8)	(38.9 - 22.6)

Delaware	Colorado	Alabama	Alaska
District of Columbia	Connecticut	Arizona	Arkansas
Iowa	Indiana	Hawaii	California
Massachusetts	Kansas	Illinois	Florida
Missouri	Maine	Louisiana	Georgia
Montana	Maryland	New Jersey	Idaho
Nebraska	Michigan	North Carolina	Kentucky
New Hampshire	Minnesota	Ohio	Mississippi
North Dakota	New York	Oklahoma	Nevada
Pennsylvania	Utah	Oregon	New Mexico
Rhode Island	Virginia	South Carolina	Texas
South Dakota	West Virginia	Tennessee	Wyoming
Vermont	Wisconsin	Washington

*States in alphabetical order, not data order. SOURCES: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System; and U.S. Bureau of the Census, Population Division. See table 8-4.

Findings

In 2000, 1.24 million bachelor's degrees were conferred in all fields, up from 1.05 million in 1990.
This increase across the United States in 2000 translates to about 46 bachelor's degrees per 1,000 18–24-year-olds, ranging from about 23 to 85 across states; the District of Columbia exceeded 104 (an outlier reflecting special characteristics).
Over the decade, the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States increased relative to the 18–24-year-old population, rising from 39 in 1990 to 46 by mid-decade, similar to the 2000 level.
The pattern for states in the top two quartiles is similar to those for mathematics and science performance of eighth graders.

Description

Earning a bachelor's degree gives people a greater opportunity to work in higher paying jobs than is generally available to people with less education; it also prepares them for advanced education. The ratio of bachelor's degrees awarded to a state's 18–24-year-old population is a broad measure of a state's relative success in producing degrees at this level. The 18–24-year-old cohort was chosen to approximate the age range of most people pursuing an undergraduate degree.

A high value of this indicator may suggest the successful provision of educational opportunity at this level. The value may also be high when a higher education system draws many out-of-state students, which may particularly affect the results for some sparsely populated states and the District of Columbia.