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.
Women have overtaken men and now account for more than half (50.7%) of the college-educated labor force in the United States.
Among married couples in the United States, women’s financial contributions have grown steadily over the last half century. Even when earnings are similar, husbands spend more time on paid work and leisure, while wives devote more time to caregiving and housework.
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.
Compared with 2000, suburban populations are less engaged in the labor market, experiencing declining incomes and seeing home values that have not kept pace with those of the central cities.
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.
Around a quarter of college faculty in the U.S. were nonwhite in fall 2017, compared with 45% of students.
An influx of students from low-income families and students of color at U.S. colleges and universities has almost exclusively fueled the growth in the overall number of undergraduates.
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