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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

How Many Have Bachelor’s Degrees?


Q: What percentage of the U.S. population has at least a bachelor's degree?

A: According to the Census Bureau, the figure is 27 percent of adults.

FULL ANSWER

The Census Bureau's figure pertains to Americans who are age 25 and older and comes from the 2006 American Community Survey. The statistic is based on a sample with a margin of error of plus or minus 0.1. The percentage of Americans with a bachelor's degree has increased over the years: In 1990, the figure was 20.3 percent.

In 2006, the Census also found that 84.1 percent of Americans age 25 and older had completed high school, and 9.9 percent had earned an advanced degree.

– Lori Robertson

Sources

U.S. Census Bureau. American Community Survey 2006. 3 Jan. 2007.

U.S. Census Bureau. "Educational Attainment: 2000," Aug. 2003.