Education levels of U.S. immigrants are on the rise
In 2016, 17.2% of U.S. immigrants ages 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree and another 12.8% had attained a postgraduate degree. Both shares are up since 1980.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
In 2016, 17.2% of U.S. immigrants ages 25 and older had a bachelor’s degree and another 12.8% had attained a postgraduate degree. Both shares are up since 1980.
Youth is a defining characteristic of the U.S. Latino population. Latinos ages 35 or younger accounted for well over half of the nation’s Latino population in 2016.
Sweden’s general election extended two trends now prominent across Western Europe: The rise of right-wing populist parties and the decline of center-left parties.
Hispanics are more likely than the general U.S. public to believe in the American dream – that hard work will pay off and that each generation is better off than the one prior.
A projected 50.7 million pre-K-12 students will return to the classroom in U.S. public schools this fall. As the school year gets underway, read key findings about America’s students and their experiences.
Most Americans like labor unions, at least in the abstract. A majority (55%) holds a favorable view of unions, versus 33% who hold an unfavorable view, according to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year. Despite those fairly benign views, unionization rates in the United States have dwindled in recent decades. As of 2017, just 10.7% of all wage and salary workers were union members, matching the record low set in 2016, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
More than 22.4 million people applied in 2017 to a U.S. visa program that provides 50,000 green cards each year through a lottery system. The number of applicants nearly matched the record 23 million applicants received in 2016 and came as the Trump administration and some members of Congress have sought to eliminate the program – the only one of its kind globally.
At least 65 of the current voting members of Congress are immigrants or the children of immigrants. These members represent nearly half of U.S. states.
The number of people living in sub-Saharan Africa who were forced to leave their homes due to conflict reached a new high of 18.4 million in 2017, up sharply from 14.1 million in 2016 – the largest regional increase of forcibly displaced people in the world.
Despite some ups and downs over the past several decades, today’s real average wage in the U.S. has about the same purchasing power it did 40 years ago. And most of what wage gains there have been have flowed to the highest-paid tier of workers.