Lumina Foundation, a foundation with the purpose of making learning opportunities beyond high school available to all, released the annual Stronger Nation report, showing that the United States has more working-age adults with bachelor’s degrees. degree.
The foundation highlights the results of its online data visualization tool to track working-age adults with degrees and other valuable credentials and found that the national educational attainment rate among adults ages 25 to 64 reached 54.3% in 2022, which represents a year-on-year gain of 0.6 percentage points.
The share of working-age adults with college degrees increased from 45.7% in 2021 to 46.5% in 2022 data, the most recent year available.
The number of short-term credentials remained relatively stable, with a slight decrease in industry-recognized certifications from 3.7% to 3.6% and university certificates from 4.3% to 4.2%, resulting in 7.8% of adults had short-term quality credentials as workers.
The report notes that despite the lack of growth nationally in terms of credentials in the short term, there were positive points.
“Kentucky and Rhode Island increased overall achievement by an impressive 3.4 percentage points compared to last year,” said Courtney Brown, vice president of strategic planning and impact at Lumina.
“Even as people question the value of higher education, the increase in degree attainment shows that more people are investing in education, which on average leads to a better quality of life. Younger adults have made tremendous strides, which bodes well for the nation’s future,” Brown added.
Among adults ages 25 to 34, 56.3% have earned a quality postsecondary credential. That’s an increase of 17.4 percentage points from 2009.
Degree attainment increased among all races and ethnicities: Hispanics and Latino Americans gained 1.7 percentage points between 2021 and 2022, followed by white and African American adults, each of whom saw increases of 1.5 percentage points.
Lumina notes that significant gaps persist, however, and post-secondary educational attainment rates among African American, Hispanic, Latino, and Native American adults report falling significantly below the national average of 46.5%. These figures are 35.7% among African Americans, 29.5% among Hispanic and Latino adults, and 26.5% among Native Americans, based on 2022 data.
Lumina began publishing Stronger Nation in 2009. At the time, the country’s degree attainment rate was 38.1% among working-age adults. The 8.5 percentage point increase in the share of adults with bachelor’s and associate’s degrees has generated significant gains.
Other additional findings:
– 35 states, along with Puerto Rico and Washington, DC, experienced increases in educational attainment.
– Adults between 25 and 34 years old have a degree attainment rate of 56.4% compared to 54.3% among the country’s entire working-age population.
– Alabama, Colorado, Florida, North Carolina and Washington, DC all saw increases of 2 percentage points or more. The variation in these figures from one year to the next is not unusual and there is no single explanation that justifies these changes.
In 2008, Lumina issued a national call for 60% of adults in the United States to have college degrees or other quality credentials beyond high school by 2025 to meet labor market demand and ensure the country’s global competitiveness.
Over the past 15 years, the proportion of adults in the United States between the ages of 25 and 64 with college degrees, certificates, or industry-recognized certifications has increased from 37.9% to 54.3%.
Keep reading:
· The 10 best cities in the world for students, one belongs to the USA.
· New York is the “worst” city to start a professional career: study
· Low-income Mexicans will be able to access state tuition in certain California schools