North Dakota ranks among the top states in the country for its percentage of young adults who hold a college degree, according to recently released 2009 information from the U.S. Census Bureau.
For state residents age 25 to 34, 49.5 percent were college graduates in 2009. That's well above the 37.8 percent of young adults in the U.S. overall who have college degrees.
It was enough to put North Dakota in third place, behind only Washington, D.C., (63.5 percent) and Massachusetts (53.4 percent). Minnesota ranked fourth at 48.3 percent.
Arkansas had the lowest rate of college graduates in this age group, with only 25.9 percent of its young adults holding at least a bachelor's degree.
According to census estimates from 2008, Fargo topped North Dakota with 34.4 percent of adults 25 and older who are college graduates. The state's overall average was 22 percent.
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Grand Forks came in second at 30.3 percent, followed by Bismarck (29.4 percent) and Minot (24.1 percent).
Nationwide, 87 percent of adults 25 and older had a high school diploma in 2009 and 30 percent had at least a bachelor's degree. That means 58.6 million U.S. residents had a bachelor's degree or more in 2009, a 34 percent jump compared with 1999.
And 10.6 percent of adults 25 and older now have education beyond a bachelor's degree, well above the 3 percent rate in 1960 and 7.2 percent in 1980.
Women now make up 58 percent of young adults age 25 to 29 who hold an advanced degree. In that age group, 9 percent of women and 6 percent of men hold a master's, law, medical or doctoral degree.
Reach Johnson at (701) 780-1105; (800) 477-6572, ext. 105; or send e-mail to rjohnson@gfherald.com .
