---
title: "Science Knowledge Is Higher Among Highly Educated Adults"
description: "In the new Pew Research Center survey, more-educated Americans generally score better overall in answering science-related questions than those who have a high school degree or less. And those with a college degree or higher tend to perform better on the toughest questions. Adults with a college or postgraduate degree are more than twice as […]"
date: "2015-09-10"
authors:
  - name: "Cary Funk"
    job_title: "Former Director, Science and Society Research"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/cary-funk/"
  - name: "Sara Kehaulani Goo"
    job_title: "Former Senior Digital Editor"
    link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/sara-kehaulani-goo/"
url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2015/09/10/science-knowledge-is-higher-among-highly-educated-adults-2/"
categories:
  - "Public Knowledge"
  - "Science Knowledge"
  - "Science News & Information"
datasets:
  - name: "American Trends Panel Wave 6"
    url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/dataset/american-trends-panel-wave-6/"
---

# Science Knowledge Is Higher Among Highly Educated Adults

[![College Graduates and Postgraduates Most Knowledgeable About These Science Topics](https://www.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/9/2015/09/2015-09-10_science-knowledge_3_01.png)](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/09/10/what-the-public-knows-and-does-not-know-about-science/2015-09-10_science-knowledge_3_01/)

In the new Pew Research Center survey, more-educated Americans generally score better overall in answering science-related questions than those who have a high school degree or less. And those with a college degree or higher tend to perform better on the toughest questions.

Adults with a college or postgraduate degree are more than twice as likely to get at least eight out of 12 questions right, compared with adults with a high school diploma or less (82% vs. 40%). Those with a postgraduate degree score an average of 9.5 correct answers out of 12, while those with a high school education or less get an average of 6.8 correct.

Fully 57% of adults with a postgraduate degree get 10 to 12 correct answers, whereas this is true for 18% of those with a high school diploma or less.

On all 12 questions, there is at least a 13 percentage point difference in correct answers between the highest- and lowest-educated groups. The largest difference is found in a question about the loudness of a sound. A 62% majority of those with a postgraduate degree correctly identify the amplitude (height) of the sound wave as determining its loudness, as do 52% of those with a four-year college degree. By contrast, 20% of those with a high school education or less answer this question correctly. And there is a 34-point gap between these groups in correctly interpreting a scatterplot chart from among a list of four options. Half (50%) of those with a high school diploma or less answer this question correctly, compared with 84% among those who completed a postgraduate degree.

Differences by education in science knowledge were also found in previous Pew Research surveys on this topic, [as detailed in a later section](https://www.pewresearch.org/internet/2015/09/10/comparison-of-science-knowledge-questions-across-pew-research-center-surveys). These findings are also consistent with analysis of the factual science knowledge index in the National Science Board’s [Science and Engineering Indicators](http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-7/c7h.htm). That research finds higher education levels associated with more factual knowledge of science. College graduates who took at least three college-level courses in science or mathematics have higher levels of knowledge about science than do those who took fewer science and math courses.[12. numoffset="12" Science and Engineering Indicators 2014, See [Chapter 7](http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/seind14/index.cfm/chapter-7/c7h.htm), Figure 7-7]

---

**Next:** [Gender Gaps Evident on Topics in the Physical Sciences](https://www.pewresearch.org/science/2015/09/10/gender-gaps-evident-on-topics-in-the-physical-sciences-2.md)