States With the Most Young College Grads

Guess what state produces the greatest percentage of young college graduates?

This question isn’t a brain puzzler. As you might suspect, Massachusetts, with its critical mass of elite universities, tops the list. According to the Lumina Foundation, 49.2% of 25- to 34-year olds in Massachusetts possess a college degree.

You might have trouble, however, guessing which state produces the smallest percentage of college graduates. That dubious distinction belongs to  Nevada. Just 22.2% of its young adults have earned an associate’s, bachelor’s or graduate degree.

Lumina has published the college graduation rates for each state as part of its initiative to convince people, who have earned some college credits, to return to school and finish their degrees.

Here are the states with the highest percentage of young college grads:

1. Massachusetts   49.2%
2. Minnesota         45.2%
3. North Dakota    43.9%
4. Connecticut      42.4% (tie)
5. Colorado          42.4%
6. New York         42.2%

Here are the states with lowest percentage of young college grads:

1. Nevada          22.2%
2. Arkansas       23.9%
3. West Virginia 24.0%
4. Louisiana      25.7%
5. Mississippi    26.4%

With Lumina’s figures you can also drill down to find the grad rates for each county within a state. I live in San Diego County where 35.9% of young people have earned degrees. That’s better than Los Angeles County’s 30.3%, but it’s measly compared to San  Francisco County’s grad rate of 66%.  San Francisco even beats the percentage of college grads (61.7%) living in Middlesex County, MA, which is the home of Harvard and MIT.

These numbers might be of some small comfort to parents and teenagers who are stressing about the competition to get into college. Keep this in mind:  Even in Cambridge, MA, more than one out of every three young adults there don’t possess a college degree.

Map image by Marxchivist. CC 2.0.