Q. What percentage of 25-to-34-year-old residents of the USA hold a college degree?
A. 30.5% (34% for women and 27% for men).
But, as you’d expect, it varies wildly from place to place.
I’ve delved into the data on educational-attainment in the USA’s 100 largest metropolitan areas. Here it is:
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Scranton: Uneducated Backwater?
This discussion has been moved to its own post.
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Least Educated Metro Areas
In the entire dataset of 953 Census-defined metropolitan and micropolitan areas, we find, at the bottom of the list, places where having a degree is rare indeed. Here are the bottom-20 for the entire USA.
Percent of 25-34-Year-Olds Holding a College Degree |
|||
|---|---|---|---|
| Metro/Micro Area | Total | Males | Females |
| Okeechobee, FL Micro Area | 7.2% | 4.3% | 11.6% |
| Forrest City, AR Micro Area | 7.0% | 4.7% | 10.1% |
| Summerville, GA Micro Area | 6.9% | 7.3% | 6.3% |
| Clewiston, FL Micro Area | 6.6% | 4.9% | 10.3% |
| Arcadia, FL Micro Area | 6.6% | 3.5% | 14.6% |
| Henderson, NC Micro Area | 6.3% | 4.3% | 8.1% |
| Deming, NM Micro Area | 6.2% | 6.3% | 6.2% |
| Dillon, SC Micro Area | 6.2% | 3.6% | 8.5% |
| North Vernon, IN Micro Area | 6.2% | 4.7% | 7.6% |
| The Villages, FL Micro Area | 6.2% | 4.4% | 9.2% |
| La Follette, TN Micro Area | 6.1% | 6.2% | 6.0% |
| Connersville, IN Micro Area | 6.0% | 5.2% | 6.8% |
| Hereford, TX Micro Area | 5.5% | 4.2% | 6.7% |
| Pecos, TX Micro Area | 5.3% | 5.8% | 4.7% |
| Wauchula, FL Micro Area | 5.0% | 1.7% | 11.9% |
| Pierre Part, LA Micro Area | 4.8% | 1.3% | 8.3% |
| Pahrump, NV Micro Area | 4.7% | 2.2% | 7.1% |
| Beeville, TX Micro Area | 4.1% | 2.7% | 8.0% |
| Raymondville, TX Micro Area | 2.6% | 2.6% | 2.6% |
| Tallulah, LA Micro Area | 1.8% | 1.1% | 2.4% |
| Metro/Micro Area | Total | Males | Females |
.
Down here at the bottom we get the extremes. I’m not sure why. Observe:
Lopsided Female-Male Ratios
In 92.4% of all metro areas, a higher share of young females than young males hold degrees. In the USA as a whole, it is 34% to 27%.
Down here at the bottom of the list, we find:
– Wauchula, Florida (Females: 11.9% Males: 1.7%), and
– Pierre Part, Louisiana (Females: 8.3%, Males: 1.3). The places with the second and third most-lopsided female-male college-education ratio.
– The place with the most-lopsided female-male degree ratio in the USA is Canon City, Colorado (#920/953 in overall degree-%): Females: 24.5%, Males: 3.3%. What could possibly explain this?
Places Where Young Males are More Educated than Young Females
– I wonder what is special about Summerville, Georgia and Pecos, Texas? They have noticeably-higher shares of young-male degree-holders than young-female degree-holders.
– In only 7.6% of all metro-/micro-areas in the USA, the % of young males with degrees is higher than the % of young females with degrees. But down here at the bottom of the list, it is reasonably common:
– In the bottom-50 (in terms of overall degree-holding-%), 11 metros [22%] have a higher male-% than female-%. Why would the most uneducated places be more likely to have more educated males than females?
–In the 100 most-populous metros in the USA (i.e. the long chart at the beginning of this post), there are only 2 that have a higher male-% than female-% in degree-holding: Ogden-Clearfield, Utah and Provo-Orem, Utah.
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There’s a moderate negative correlation between the top 100 list of big metro areas and the default rate on mortgages. Among 91-100, 7 or 8 had very high default rates as of the end of 2008 (i.e., their defaults helped cause the recession more than the recession caused their defaults).
And both can be explained largely by race, as you have shown.
California Foreclosure Rates by Ethnicity
By the way: It is an honor, Mr. Sailer, that you have commented here.