Census Confirms Earning Power of a College Degree

How much is a college degree worth? A steadily growing bundle, according to new data from the Commerce Department’s U.S. Census Bureau showing that Americans age 18 and older with a bachelor’s degree earned an average of $51,554, while those with a high school diploma earned $28,645.

The study, Educational Attainment in the United States: 2005, also showed advanced-degree holders made an average of $78,093.

A few other highlights include:

• In 2005, 85 percent of all adults 25 years or older reported they had completed at least high school. More than one-quarter (28 percent) of adults age 25 years and older had attained at least a bachelor's degree.

• High school graduation rates for women continued to exceed those of men, 85.4 percent and 84.9 percent, respectively. On the other hand, men had a greater proportion of the population with a bachelor's degree or higher (28.9 percent compared with 26.5 percent of women).

• Non-Hispanic whites had the highest proportion of adults with a high school diploma or higher (90 percent), followed by Asians (88 percent), blacks (81 percent) and Hispanics (59 percent).

Baseline figures showed a slight increase from the 2004 report of Educational Attainment, which showed that workers with bachelor’s degrees earned an average of $51,206 a year, while those with a high school diploma earned $27,915.

Also See:
College Degree Nearly Doubles Annual Earnings
Women Closing Some Workplace Gender Gaps: Census