More Young Adults Earning Postsecondary Degrees in 2017

Nation­wide, the pro­por­tion of teens who are nei­ther in school nor high school grad­u­ates has fall­en. This rate, which applies to youth between the ages of 16 and 19, fell from 11% in 2000 to just 4% in 2017.

Anoth­er pos­i­tive trend: The pro­por­tion of 25- to 34-year-olds who hold at least a bachelor’s degree has risen. In 2000, 29% of indi­vid­u­als in this age range had earned a bachelor’s degree or high­er. This rate climbed to 31% by 2010 and 36% by 2017.

Such clear gains in edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment are encour­ag­ing. They’re also nec­es­sary, because the work of the future is expect­ed to involve increas­ing­ly high­er lev­els of skills, knowl­edge and training.

Nation­al and State Edu­ca­tion Data in the KIDS COUNT Data Center

• Unem­ployed teens age 16 to 19
• Teens ages 16 to 19 not attend­ing school and not working
• Teens ages 16 to 19 not in school and not high school graduates
• Edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment of pop­u­la­tion ages 25 to 34
• Edu­ca­tion­al attain­ment of work­ing-age pop­u­la­tion 25 to 64