At the risk of reinforcing the Model Minority Myth, Asian Americans outpace other groups in holding college diplomas with bachelors' degrees and higher.
The educational level of American adults overall is on the rise as more college graduates go on to earn master’s, professional and doctoral degrees.
Leading the way are Asian Americans as a combined group although wide disparities exist between subgroups.
Among Asians ages 25 to 29 in 2018, almost 7 in 10 (69%) had a bachelor’s or higher degree. Five years earlier (in 2013), the bachelor’s degree attainment rate for this group was 59%.
Recent immigrants -- the majority of which come from Asia -- to the United States were more likely to have a college education than earlier immigrants or the native born.
Since 2000, the number of people age 25 and over whose highest degree was a master’s has doubled to 21 million. The number of doctoral degree holders has more than doubled to 4.5 million.
Now, about 13.1% of U.S. adults have an advanced degree, up from 8.6% in 2000.
About 21.2% of Asians, age 25 and older, have an advanced degree (e.g., Master's, Ph.D., M.D. or J.D.). This compares with 13.1% for all Americans 25 and older. However, different Asian ethnic groups have different educational attainment levels -- 68% of Asian Indians, age 25 and older, had a bachelor's degree or more education and 37% had a graduate or professional degree; the corresponding numbers for Vietnamese Americans were 24% and 7%, respectively.
Since 2000, the number of people age 25 and over whose highest degree was a master’s has doubled to 21 million. The number of doctoral degree holders has more than doubled to 4.5 million.
Now, about 13.1% of U.S. adults have an advanced degree, up from 8.6% in 2000.
About 21.2% of Asians, age 25 and older, have an advanced degree (e.g., Master's, Ph.D., M.D. or J.D.). This compares with 13.1% for all Americans 25 and older. However, different Asian ethnic groups have different educational attainment levels -- 68% of Asian Indians, age 25 and older, had a bachelor's degree or more education and 37% had a graduate or professional degree; the corresponding numbers for Vietnamese Americans were 24% and 7%, respectively.
These findings come from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Educational Attainment in the United States: 2018 table package that uses data from the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement.
It examines the educational attainment of adults age 25 and older by demographic and social characteristics, such as age, sex, race and Hispanic origin, nativity and disability status.
They also clearly show a rise in the number of college graduates who have advanced degrees. In 2000, one-third of people with at least a bachelor’s degree had completed an advanced degree. By 2018, 37 percent had done so.
In 2017, on average a person with an advanced degree earned 3.7 times as much as a high school dropout.
The Census findings correspond with research by PEW Research Center.
Education levels have generally risen since 1980 among the largest U.S. immigrant-origin populations. More than three-in-four immigrants ages 25 and older from India (77.5%) had a bachelor’s degree or higher in 2016 – the highest share of any top origin country – up from 66.1% in 1980.
Meanwhile, immigrants from Korea, which is second to India, have had the biggest increase in educational attainment among those ages 25 and older. The share of Korean immigrants with a bachelor’s degree jumped from 34.4% in 1980 to 53.6% in 2016, a 19-percentage-point increase.
By contrast, the share of Mexican immigrants with a bachelor’s degree or higher has increased by only a few percentage points since 1980, reaching 6.2% in 2016. However, the share of Mexican immigrants ages 25 and older with a high school degree has more than doubled, from 11.4% in 1980 to 25.2% in 2016.
Other highlights from the Census report:
- The percentage of people age 25 and over who had completed less than a high school diploma or equivalent was higher for men (10.6%) than for women (9.8%).
- Between 2000 and 2018, the percentage of people 25 years and older who had completed a bachelor's degree or higher increased by 9 percentage points, from 25.6% to 35.0%.
- Among immigrants who have arrived since 2000, 38.8 percent have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared with 35.2% of the native-born. Among earlier immigrants, the rate of college education was lower — for those who arrived in the 1990s, it was 31.3%.
- Naturalized citizens were among the groups with high levels of college attainment — 38.4 percent had a bachelor’s degree or higher.
- The children of immigrants were also likely to have a bachelor’s degree (39.6 percent).
Today, the U.S. has more immigrants than any other nation in the world. About 13.5% of the U.S. population was foreign born in 2016. This share has been on the rise since 1970, when it was at a historic low of 4.8%, but it remains below the record of 14.8%, reached more than a century ago in 1890.
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