.Statistics Snapshot: Generation Z and Education

This post explores sta­tis­tics at the inter­sec­tion of edu­ca­tion and Gen­er­a­tion Z and what the data tells us about this gen­er­a­tion of youth and young adults.

The term Gen­er­a­tion Z gen­er­al­ly refers to any indi­vid­ual born between 1997 and 2012. Span­ning ages 14 to 29 in 2026, a sub­stan­tial share of Gen­er­a­tion Z is cur­rent­ly advanc­ing through America’s high schools and col­leges, while its old­est mem­bers are mov­ing fur­ther into adult­hood and the workforce.

These youth and young adults are racial­ly and eth­ni­cal­ly diverse, pro­gres­sive and and pro-edu­ca­tion, accord­ing to mul­ti­ple sources. Often called Gen Z or ​“zoomers,” they’re sand­wiched between mil­len­ni­als and a younger age group called Gen­er­a­tion Alpha.

Gen­er­a­tion Z Edu­ca­tion Statistics

While Gen Z made its way through the school sys­tem over the last cou­ple decades, sev­er­al bell­wether edu­ca­tion indi­ca­tors improved, par­tic­u­lar­ly eighth grade math pro­fi­cien­cy and high school grad­u­a­tion rates. How­ev­er, chron­ic absen­teeism became an increas­ing con­cern, and scores for the youngest Gen Zers — now reach­ing high school — have yet to recov­er from pan­dem­ic edu­ca­tion disruptions.

Read­ing, Math and Chron­ic Absenteeism

• Gen Z fourth graders made slight progress on read­ing pro­fi­cien­cy. Zoomers moved through fourth grade from about 2006 to 2021. Aca­d­e­m­ic data are avail­able for almost all of that time — from 2007 to 2019 — on the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT^® Data Cen­ter. Dur­ing that peri­od, the share of fourth graders scor­ing pro­fi­cient or bet­ter in read­ing inched up from 32% to 34%.
• At the same time, chron­ic absen­teeism increased for Gen Z fourth graders. From 2007 to 2019, the per­cent­age of fourth graders who were chron­i­cal­ly absent from school for any rea­son rose from 20% to 24%. This sta­tis­tic jumped to a stag­ger­ing 36% by 2022, when the next gen­er­a­tion, Gen Alpha, began enter­ing fourth grade. It sub­se­quent­ly declined to 31% in 2024. Some research has linked absen­teeism to ris­ing youth men­tal health prob­lems. For exam­ple, a 2025 study of Gen Zers found that stu­dents who were absent for men­tal health rea­sons were twice as like­ly to miss 3+ days in the past month com­pared to stu­dents who were absent for oth­er rea­sons (30% vs. 15%). 
• When the old­est Gen Zers reached eighth grade around 2011, the share scor­ing pro­fi­cient in math hit its high­est lev­el in over a decade. That is, the per­cent­age of U.S. eighth grade stu­dents scor­ing pro­fi­cient or bet­ter in math increased to a high of 34% in 2011, up from 25% for eighth grade mil­len­ni­als in 2000. This fig­ure stayed fair­ly steady between 2011 and 2019, but then fell to 26% in 2022 and remained low at 27% in 2024, reflect­ing the pandemic’s toll on math scores.

High School and Col­lege Attain­ment for Gen­er­a­tion Z

Gen Zers are climb­ing a longer aca­d­e­m­ic lad­der. They are more like­ly to fin­ish high school and col­lege com­pared to ear­li­er gen­er­a­tions. For exam­ple, the first Gen Zers reached age 18 in 2015, and the nation­al col­lege com­ple­tion rate for this 2015 cohort has remained high­er — at 62% — than the rates for all pri­or stu­dent cohorts, accord­ing to the 2023 Com­plet­ing Col­lege report by the Nation­al Stu­dent Clear­ing­house. Although this rate stag­nat­ed for few years, a 2026 analy­sis by the same orga­ni­za­tion found that Gen Z young adults are increas­ing­ly com­plet­ing under­grad­u­ate degrees and cre­den­tials.

The KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter reports more edu­ca­tion trends:

• Gen Z high school­ers main­tained a record high on-time U.S. grad­u­a­tion rate of 87% from 2021–2022 to 2023–2024. When the old­est zoomers first reached high school grad­u­a­tion age in 2013–2014, only 82% grad­u­at­ed on time. This five per­cent­age point improve­ment is an his­toric high for the nation.
• On-time high school grad­u­a­tion rates also improved for all racial and eth­nic groups (with avail­able data) since Gen Zers reached grad­u­a­tion age. How­ev­er, some stu­dents of col­or con­tin­ue to expe­ri­ence inequities in edu­ca­tion­al oppor­tu­ni­ties that influ­ence these rates. For instance, just 76% of Amer­i­can Indi­an or Alas­ka Native, 82% of Black and 84% of Lati­no Gen Z stu­dents grad­u­at­ed on time in 2023–2024, com­pared to 90% for white students.
• When Gen Zers reached ages 16 to 19 by 2016, only 4% of these teens were out of school and lacked a high school degree. From 2016 to 2024, the per­cent­age of youth in this age group who fit this sta­tis­tic remained at 4%, which is well below the equiv­a­lent fig­ure for mil­len­ni­als in the ear­ly 2000s.
• The vast major­i­ty of Gen Z young adults ages 18 to 24 are high school grad­u­ates or cur­rent­ly enrolled in school — this was true for 94% of this group in 2020–2024. In addi­tion, the share of Gen Z young adults who were col­lege stu­dents or col­lege grad­u­ates has held steady at just under 50% since the first mem­bers of this gen­er­a­tion reached age 18. This fig­ure is a marked improve­ment from 36% in 2000.

High­er lev­els of post-sec­ondary edu­ca­tion are linked to increased reports from Gen Z that they are thriv­ing (mean­ing they rate their cur­rent and pro­ject­ed lives pos­i­tive­ly), accord­ing to a nation­al 2025 study. This sur­vey found that among Gen Z adults up to age 28, about half (51%) of those with a bachelor’s degree or high­er said they were thriv­ing, com­pared to 36% of those with low­er lev­els of edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment (e.g., asso­ciates degree, voca­tion­al pro­gram or high school degree or less). The link between edu­ca­tion and thriv­ing per­sist­ed even after con­trol­ling for income and oth­er demo­graph­ic characteristics. 

Read more about high school grad­u­a­tion dis­par­i­ties and trends

Parental Edu­ca­tion Lev­els of Gen­er­a­tion Z

The tra­jec­to­ry toward more edu­ca­tion holds true at the fam­i­ly lev­el, too. Par­ents of Gen Zers are also bet­ter edu­cat­ed. As zoomers grew up over the last two decades, the share of chil­dren under age 18 whose head of house­hold had a bachelor’s degree increased from 17% in 2005 to 23% in 2024. Sim­i­lar­ly, kids whose par­ents had grad­u­ate degrees increased by sev­en per­cent­age points dur­ing this period.

In addi­tion, a declin­ing share of Gen Zers was born to moth­ers with less than a high school diplo­ma. Among the youngest mem­bers of this group born between 2006 and 2012, births to women who had not grad­u­at­ed from high school dropped from 26% to 17%. This is sig­nif­i­cant because low edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment among moth­ers is linked to poor child health and aca­d­e­m­ic outcomes.

The Edu­ca­tion of Gen Z in Immi­grant Families

Chil­dren grow­ing up in immi­grant fam­i­lies are more like­ly to expe­ri­ence Eng­lish-lan­guage bar­ri­ers that can affect their edu­ca­tion. Some kids live in lin­guis­ti­cal­ly iso­lat­ed house­holds, mean­ing no one at home age 14 or old­er speaks Eng­lish only or speaks it ​“very well.” Accord­ing to the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter, as Gen Z grew up, the share of chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies that were lin­guis­ti­cal­ly iso­lat­ed declined from 28% in the ear­ly 2000s to 16% in 2023. 

Improv­ing a student’s Eng­lish lan­guage pro­fi­cien­cy cor­re­lates to improved aca­d­e­m­ic out­comes, accord­ing to research. For instance, over 90% of Gen Z fourth graders who were Eng­lish lan­guage learn­ers scored below pro­fi­cient in read­ing from 2007 to 2019. By com­par­i­son, only 62% to 66% of their Eng­lish-flu­ent peers scored below pro­fi­cient dur­ing this peri­od. Nation­wide, an over­whelm­ing major­i­ty of chil­dren who are in Eng­lish Lan­guage Learn­er pro­grams — three of every four kids who receive this sup­port — speak Span­ish as their home lan­guage, accord­ing to the Nation­al Cen­ter for Edu­ca­tion Statistics.

In an encour­ag­ing trend, Gen Z kids in immi­grant fam­i­lies are increas­ing­ly like­ly to have par­ents who com­plete high school. The lat­est data on the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter show that the share of chil­dren in immi­grant fam­i­lies whose par­ents did not have a high school degree improved from 29% in the ear­ly 2000s to 18% in 2023.

Gen Z Views on Education

An annu­al Voic­es of Gen Z study by Gallup and the Wal­ton Fam­i­ly Foun­da­tion gath­ered the per­spec­tives of U.S. young peo­ple ages 13 to 28 on a range of issues, includ­ing edu­ca­tion, in 2025. Among the survey’s findings:

• Gen­er­a­tion Z val­ues a good edu­ca­tion: Near­ly 9 in 10 (88%) Gen Zers think that hav­ing a good edu­ca­tion is ​“very impor­tant” or ​“some­what impor­tant” to hav­ing a great life.
• Most want to go to col­lege but cost is a major con­cern: More than two-thirds (69%) of Gen Z mid­dle and high school­ers intend to enroll in col­lege. How­ev­er, a pri­or Gallup-Wal­ton sur­vey asked about afford­abil­i­ty and found that bare­ly over half (53% in 2023) of col­lege-bound youth thought they could afford it. This issue remains a con­cern today — for exam­ple, a 2026 Stra­da sur­vey of high school­ers con­sid­er­ing col­lege found that cost and afford­abil­i­ty were the most fre­quent­ly cit­ed con­sid­er­a­tions for stu­dents and families. 
• Few feel pre­pared for col­lege: Only 1 in 5 Gen Z high school­ers feel very pre­pared to apply for or suc­ceed in col­lege. Stu­dents who are more engaged in school are more like­ly to have a pos­i­tive out­look on their future.
• School engage­ment has improved for Gen Z mid­dle and high school­ers: The Gallup-Wal­ton sur­vey mea­sures school engage­ment with eight ques­tions such as the degree to which stu­dents feel their course­work is inter­est­ing, chal­leng­ing and gives them oppor­tu­ni­ties to do what they do best. While all mea­sures of school engage­ment improved between 2024 and 2025, results show areas of con­cern. For instance, half of Gen Z stu­dents did not agree that their school gives them an oppor­tu­ni­ty to do what they do best, and about 2 in 5 did not agree that their course­work chal­lenges them in a good way. School engage­ment is strong­ly linked to stu­dent well-being and plans to pur­sue college.
• Most Gen Zers have con­fi­dence in teach­ers: The same sur­vey in 2023 found that Gen Zers place more trust in teach­ers — with 63% express­ing a lot of con­fi­dence in them — and in sci­ence (71%) than they do in the med­ical sys­tem (45%), the police (38%), the crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tem (23%), large tech­nol­o­gy com­pa­nies (17%) or the news (16%).

Gen Z and Technology

Gen­er­a­tion Z babies were born into mod­ern tech­nol­o­gy and they are the first gen­er­a­tion to grow up immersed in it. Dubbed ​“the glob­al gen­er­a­tion” these stu­dents have been able to access — instant­ly — peers, trends and news from all over the world. Not sur­pris­ing­ly, 95% of 13- to 17-year-olds have access to a smart­phone and 88% have access to a com­put­er at home, accord­ing to a 2024 Pew Research Cen­ter sur­vey.

How­ev­er, youth access to com­put­ers at home varies by income, from 78% among teens in house­holds earn­ing less than $30,000 a year to 93% among those in house­holds earn­ing $75,000 or more, accord­ing to the same sur­vey. Access to com­put­ers and lap­tops at home, along with high-speed inter­net, is increas­ing­ly essen­tial for aca­d­e­m­ic suc­cess, as well as employ­ment, health care and oth­er impor­tant fam­i­ly needs.

In 2025, Pew also found that 36% of teens say they use at least one of five major social media plat­forms ​“almost con­stant­ly.” While tech­nol­o­gy and social media can fos­ter impor­tant social sup­port and con­nec­tions, they can also aug­ment anx­i­ety, depres­sion, poor sleep and stress. Con­tribut­ing to this, it can fuel a steady drum­beat of neg­a­tive news sto­ries and increase the risk of online harass­ment. These poten­tial issues can impact aca­d­e­m­ic success.

Read more about Gen­er­a­tion Z and men­tal health

Gen­er­a­tion Z in the Workforce

Gen Z teens ages 16 to 19 are less like­ly to be employed rel­a­tive to their same-age coun­ter­parts in ear­li­er gen­er­a­tions, accord­ing to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Sta­tis­tics. One pos­si­ble rea­son? Their pri­or­i­ty is school. Nation­wide, 45% of Gen­er­a­tion X teens were work­ing in 1986, 37% of mil­len­ni­al teens were work­ing in 2006 and 31% of Gen Z teens were work­ing in July 2026. In addi­tion to an increased focus on school, this trend is influ­enced by oth­er fac­tors such as shifts in the labor mar­ket and econ­o­my. Dis­par­i­ties in teen employ­ment by race and gen­der remain, as well.

At the same time, when we include old­er Gen Zers from ages 16 to 24, ful­ly two-thirds (66%) report­ed earn­ing income from employ­ment in the past year, based on 2000–2024 data.

Addi­tion­al work-relat­ed statistics:

• Gen Z is less like­ly to be dis­en­gaged from both work and school: Few­er zoomers ages 16 to 24 are dis­con­nect­ed from work and school com­pared to mil­len­ni­als of the same age a decade ago, accord­ing to the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter. That is, 11% of Gen Z youth and young adults (about 4.2 mil­lion) were nei­ther work­ing nor in school in 2023, an improve­ment from 14% (or 5.6 mil­lion) for mil­len­ni­als in 2012. How­ev­er, the 2023 fig­ure still rep­re­sents mil­lions Gen Zers who are detached from employ­ment and edu­ca­tion and need sup­port re-engag­ing in these settings.
• They pri­or­i­tize earn­ing enough to be com­fort­able over high-sta­tus jobs: Near­ly 8 in 10 (78%) Gen Zers say it is very impor­tant that they earn enough to live com­fort­ably, when asked about what’s impor­tant for their future and hav­ing a great life, accord­ing to the 2025 Voic­es of Gen Z Study not­ed above. Oth­er career aspi­ra­tions didn’t rank as high, such as hav­ing their dream job (44% said that was very impor­tant) or a high-sta­tus work posi­tion (20%).
• They indi­cate that career-prepa­ra­tion at schools is lack­ing: The same study found that most Gen Z mid­dle and high school­ers say their schools do not pro­vide career-prepa­ra­tion activ­i­ties. For instance, only about 2 in 5 stu­dents said their school offered oppor­tu­ni­ties to learn how to apply for a job (39%) or learn skills rel­e­vant to a job they want (41%).

Learn More About Gen Z

Check out the KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter for the lat­est sta­tis­tics relat­ed to Gen Z, includ­ing a dataset on youth and young adults ages 14–24. Also, see these resources:

• Gen­er­a­tion Z and Men­tal Health
• Gen Z Char­ac­ter­is­tics: Who They Are & What Defines Gen Z
• Social Issues Impor­tant to Gen­er­a­tion Z
• What the Sta­tis­tics Say About Gen­er­a­tion Z
• What Is Gen­er­a­tion Alpha?

KIDS COUNT Data Cen­ter indi­ca­tors on Gen Z and oth­er generations:

• Gen Z pop­u­la­tion size, by race and ethnicity
• Gen Zers liv­ing in pover­ty com­pared to oth­er generations
• Gen Zers in pover­ty by race and ethnicity
• Gen Zers liv­ing in low-income house­holds com­pared to oth­er generations
• Gen Zers in low-income house­holds by race and ethnicity

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