Useful Stats II: Educational Attainment Rankings by State

Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey Data (C2SS), compiled from 700,000 test households prior to the full census. C2SS provides a preliminary look at data similar to those that will be available next year from the Census 2000 long form. Several summary state tables are provided with the announcement that can be used by states as indicators of economic progress, including educational attainment, median household income, median value of owner-occupied housing, and percent of people below the poverty level. 



Using the 1991 and 2000 educational attainment data from the Census Bureau, SSTI has prepared the accompanying table revealing each state's relative rank for the percentage of its population over 25 years of age that had obtained at least a Bachelor's Degree in 1991and 2000. The table also presents rankings for the percentage change between the two figures for each state. 



For both 1991 and 2000, the District of Columbia had the highest percentage of its population attain a Bachelor's degree or more, with 34.4 and 41.1 percent respectively. Massachusetts moved ahead of Colorado during the period to claim second place in 2000 with 34.5 percent. 



Indiana showed the most improvement during the decade with the percentage of college graduates in the state increasing by 35.4 percent from 1991 to 2000. The Hoosier state's overall ranking for 2000 was 45th, up from 48th in 1991. Delaware, second in overall change with 32.6 percent, jumped 14 places in the state rankings from 33rd in 1991 to 19th in 2000. 



The Census Bureau also has released 44 of 52 state profiles from the 2000 Census, including the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. The final eight web-based profiles are scheduled to be completed by the end of this month. 



The C2SS tables can be found at: http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/C2SS/presskit7_31_01.html