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Higher Education
Quartiles | Findings | Description
Bachelor's degrees conferred per 1,000 18–24 years old: 2003
Bachelor's degrees conferred per 1,000 18–24 years old: 2003
Quartiles
Bachelor’s degrees conferred per 1,000 individuals 18–24 years old: 2003*
| 1st Quartile (137.4–57.3) |
2nd Quartile (55.6–49.1) |
3rd Quartile (47.8–39.7) |
4th Quartile (39.3–19.6) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware | Arizona | Alabama | Alaska |
| District of Columbia | Colorado | Illinois | Arkansas |
| Iowa | Connecticut | Kentucky | California |
| Massachusetts | Indiana | Louisiana | Florida |
| Missouri | Kansas | Maryland | Georgia |
| Nebraska | Maine | New Jersey | Hawaii |
| New Hampshire | Michigan | North Carolina | Idaho |
| New York | Minnesota | Oklahoma | Mississippi |
| North Dakota | Montana | Oregon | Nevada |
| Pennsylvania | Ohio | South Carolina | New Mexico |
| Rhode Island | South Dakota | Tennessee | Texas |
| Utah | West Virginia | Virginia | Wyoming |
| Vermont | Wisconsin | Washington | |
| *States in alphabetical order, not data order.
SOURCES: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, various years; and U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division. See |
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Findings
- In 2003, 1.34 million bachelor's degrees were conferred nationally in all fields, up from 1.17 million in 1993.
- Over the past decade, the number of bachelor's degrees awarded in the United States has remained essentially constant relative to the size of the 18–24-year-old population.
- Across the United States, approximately bachelor's degrees were conferred per 1,000 18–24-year-olds, ranging from about 20 to 82 across the states; the District of Columbia exceeded 137 (an outlier reflecting a large concentration of academic institutions relative to the size of the resident population).
Description
Earning a bachelor's degree gives people greater opportunities to work in higher-paying jobs than are generally available to those with less education; it also prepares them for advanced education. In addition, the capacity to produce degrees generates resources for the state. The ratio of bachelor's degrees awarded to a state's 18–24-year-old population is a broad measure of a state's relative success in producing degrees at this level. The 18–24-year-old cohort was chosen to approximate the age range of most students who are pursuing an undergraduate degree.
A high value for this indicator may suggest the successful provision of educational opportunity at this level. Student and graduate mobility after graduation, however, may make this indicator less meaningful in predicting the qualifications of a state's future workforce. The indicator's value may also be high when a higher education system draws a large percentage of out-of-state students, a situation that sometimes occurs in states with small resident populations and the District of Columbia.
