--- title: "D.C., Virginia and Maryland have the highest shares of college-educated Latinos" description: "As the number of Latinos attending college has surged in recent years, a new analysis of Census data finds wide variances by state in the share of Latino adults who have a bachelor’s degree. Overall, the District of Columbia has the highest college degree attainment rate among Hispanic adults, with 36.2% of those ages 25 […]" date: "2013-08-29" authors: - name: "Danielle Cuddington" job_title: "Former Research Associate" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/danielle-cuddington/" - name: "Mark Hugo Lopez" job_title: "Director, Race and Ethnicity Research" link: "https://www.pewresearch.org/staff/mark-hugo-lopez/" url: "https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2013/08/29/d-c-virginia-and-maryland-have-the-highest-shares-of-college-educated-latinos/" categories: - "Education" - "Higher Education" - "Hispanic/Latino Demographics" - "Hispanics/Latinos & Education" --- # D.C., Virginia and Maryland have the highest shares of college-educated Latinos ![FT-hispanic-degree-attainment-01](https://assets.pewresearch.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2013/08/FT-hispanic-degree-attainment-01.png) As the [number of Latinos attending college has surged](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2012/08/20/hispanic-student-enrollments-reach-new-highs-in-2011/) in recent years, a new analysis of Census data finds wide variances by state in the share of Latino adults who have a bachelor’s degree. Overall, the [District of Columbia](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/dc/) has the highest college degree attainment rate among Hispanic adults, with 36.2% of those ages 25 and older holding a bachelor’s degree, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2011 American Community Survey. Following D.C. are the neighboring states of [Virginia](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/va/) and [Maryland](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/md/), with college degree-attainment rates of 24.1% and 21.2%, respectively, among their Hispanic adult populations. These three states contain the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area, where nearly half (48.3%) of the adult population has a college degree. That is the highest share among large metro areas and reflects the presence of employers like the federal government. In [Florida](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/fl/), one-in-five (20.4%) Hispanic adults have a college degree. Florida has the third-largest Hispanic population in the country (8.4%) and one of the most diverse, with immigrants from Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela and a growing Puerto Rican population. Among the states that have the largest Hispanic populations—California, Texas, Florida, New York and Illinois, respectively—only Florida and New York have college degree-attainment rates above the national Hispanic average. In [California](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/ca/), which alone has 27.7% of the nation’s Latino population, only one-in-ten (10.7%) Latino adults have a college degree. The Latino adult college degree-attainment rate for [Texas](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/tx/), with the nation’s second largest Latino population, is just 12.0%. In [New York](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/ny/), the fourth biggest Latino state by population, 15.9% of Latino adults have a bachelor’s degree. And in [Illinois](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/il/), the college degree-attainment rate is 12.2%. The five states with the lowest Hispanic college degree attainment rates are [Nebraska](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/ne/) at 9.4%, [Idaho](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/id/) at 9.1%, [Mississippi](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/ms/) at 8.6%, [Arkansas](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/ar/) at 8.5% and [Nevada](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/state/nv/) at 8.1%. In Puerto Rico, home to nearly four million Latinos, 23.3% of adults ages 25 and older have a college degree. Compared with the 50 states and DC, this college degree attainment rate places Puerto Rico ahead of every state except Virginia and the District of Columbia. [The share of Latino high school graduates that immediately enroll in college](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2013/05/09/hispanic-high-school-graduates-pass-whites-in-rate-of-college-enrollment/) is on the rise, as is the [number of Hispanic students earning college degrees](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2012/08/20/iv-college-graduation-and-hispanics/). But despite these gains, the share of Latino adults nationally that have a bachelor’s degree, 13.4%, [remains significantly below that of whites (31.8%), Asians (50.3%) and blacks (18.7%)](https://www.pewresearch.org/hispanic/2013/02/15/statistical-portrait-of-hispanics-in-the-united-states-2011/#22). For more on Hispanic populations, see our interactive [state](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/states/), [county](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/2013/08/29/u-s-hispanic-population-by-county-1980-2011/) and [metropolitan area](http://pewresearch.org/pewresearch-org/hispanic/2013/08/29/hispanic-population-in-select-u-s-metropolitan-areas-2011/) maps.