Is College Worth It?
Americans have mixed views on the importance of having a degree. 47% say the cost is worth it only if someone doesn’t have to take out loans.
Numbers, Facts and Trends Shaping Your World
Americans have mixed views on the importance of having a degree. 47% say the cost is worth it only if someone doesn’t have to take out loans.
Roughly one-in-five Americans ages 65 and older were employed in 2023 – nearly double the share of those who were working 35 years ago.
Women have overtaken men and now account for more than half (50.7%) of the college-educated labor force in the United States.
Nearly four-in-ten men ages 25 to 29 now live with older relatives.
On key economic outcomes, single adults at prime working age increasingly lag behind those who are married or cohabiting
As of the third quarter of 2021, 50.3% of U.S. adults 55 and older said they were out of the labor force due to retirement.
The charts below allow for comparisons between racial or ethnic groups over time on a range of measures including educational attainment, household income, life expectancy and others. You may select any two groups at a time for comparison.
The higher education pipeline suggests a long path is ahead for increasing diversity, especially in fields like computing and engineering.
Between February and June 2020, the share of young adults who are neither enrolled in school nor employed has more than doubled.
The 30-year low reflects in part tight labor markets and falling unemployment, but also higher shares of young women at work or in school.
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