Census Product Update
You are here: Census.gov › Census Product Update › Fact of the Day › Educational Attainment in the United States
May 1, 2009
Educational Attainment in the United States
Educational Attainment in the United States: 2008 is a series of tables containing data by characteristics such as age, sex, race, Hispanic origin, marital status, occupation, industry, nativity, citizenship status and period of entry. Highlights include:
- Workers with a high school degree earned an average of $31,286 in 2007, while those with a bachelor’s degree earned an average of $57,181.
- The race and Hispanic origin data show that 53 percent of Asians in the U.S. had a bachelor’s degree or more education. For non-Hispanic whites, it was 33 percent. For blacks, it was 20 percent, and for Hispanics, it was 13 percent.
- Among younger adults (age 25-29), 88 percent had completed high school, and 31 percent had completed college.
- Among adults 75 and over, 73 percent had completed high school and 17 percent had completed college.
The data are from the Current Population Survey’s Annual Social and Economic supplement, which is conducted in February, March and April at about 100,000 addresses nationwide.
