Christopher McCarty Sociology 120 Dr. Weston November 9, 2007

Number Trends: How the Percentage of Bachelor’s Degree Holders in Kentucky Changed Over Time For the first two of the social number papers, I focused on the percentage of Americans over 25 whom had attained a Bachelor’s Degree. But, after conducting research and these comparing numbers, I began to wonder whether Kentucky’s college education attainment was as high as the United States average, and how much it had changed over the past 50 years. As of 2006, 27% of Americans over 25 had attained a Bachelor’s Degree or higher. However, in Kentucky, only 20% of the population had achieved the same degree. Even though this may seem like a big difference (25%), Kentucky has been slowly closing the gap that it has with the United States average over the past half century. In 1950, 3.9% of Kentuckians over 25 had attained a Bachelor’s Degree, compared to 6.2% of Americans. Kentucky was 37% lower than the national average in this year. Fast forward to 1980, and 16.2% of Americans over 25 had received a Bachelor’s Degree, while only 11.1% of Kentuckians had. In this census, the national average was only 30% higher than Kentucky’s average. Improvement had been made, but for the next twenty years, the Kentucky Bachelor’s Degree average remained constant at 30% less than the national average. In 2000, 17.1% of Kentuckians over 25 had attained a Bachelor’s Degree, compared to 24.4% of Americans. So, even though the Kentucky’s percentage of Bachelor’s Degree holders over the age of 25 is not as high as the American average, we have gained considerable ground

over the past 50 years, most notably in the past 6 years. Kentucky has increased its percentage of college graduates from 3.9% in 1950 to 20% in 2006. That’s an 80% increase. Kentucky still has some room to grow with concern to education, but with recent advances in Bachelor Degree attainment and education strives by our state government, we might not be far behind the national average for long.

References “Kentucky: Educational Attainment of the Population 25 Years and Over.” Census.gov. 06 November 2007

http://www.census.gov/population/socdemo/education/phct41/KY.pdf “United States: Percent of People 25 Years and Over Who Have Completed A Bachelor’s

Degree.” Census.gov. 05 November 2007

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