{"id":40928,"date":"2012-11-05T12:20:33","date_gmt":"2012-11-05T17:20:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2012\/11\/05\/section-4-attainment-of-some-college-education\/"},"modified":"2026-07-09T15:51:54","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T19:51:54","slug":"section-4-attainment-of-some-college-education","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/11\/05\/section-4-attainment-of-some-college-education\/","title":{"rendered":"Section 4: Attainment of Some College Education"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/11\/socialtrends-2012-11-05-educ-attainment-10.png\" alt=\"\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Finally, there has been a recent surge in the share of young adults who have completed at least some college education. In 2012 a record 63% of adults ages 25 to 29 have finished at least some college. As recently as 2008, fewer than 60% of young adults had been to college. In 1971 a little more than a third of young adults had some college education. Since a record 42% share of 18- to 24-year-olds was enrolled in college in 2011 (<a href=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/hispanic\/2012\/08\/20\/hispanic-student-enrollments-reach-new-highs-in-2011\/\">Fry and Lopez, 2012<\/a>), one might expect that the attainment of at least some college education will continue to rise over the near term.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Record levels of attainment of at least some college education are being driven by:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>In 2012 58% of men ages 25 to 29 had completed at least some college, up from the prior record level of 57% in 2011.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><span style=\"color: #387668;font-family: Symbol;font-size: large\"><span style=\"font-size: xx-small\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span>In 2012 record shares of black and Hispanic adults ages 25 to 29 had completed at least some college education. Among young blacks 59% had at least completed some college education, up substantially from the prior record level (55%) observed in 2010 and 2011. For the first time in 2012 more than 40% of young Hispanics have completed at least some college education.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Completion of some college education among young immigrant adults reached its highest level on record in 2012 (47%).<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<div>\n<figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-15331\" src=\"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2012\/11\/socialtrends-2012-11-05-educ-attainment-11.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"591\" height=\"741\"><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Finally, there has been a recent surge in the share of young adults who have completed at least some college education. In 2012 a record 63% of adults ages 25 to 29 have finished at least some college. As recently as 2008, fewer than 60% of young adults had been to college. In 1971 a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":131,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sub_headline":"","sub_title":"","_prc_public_revisions":[],"_ppp_expiration_hours":0,"_ppp_enabled":false,"ai_generated_summary":"","relatedPosts":[],"reportMaterials":[],"multiSectionReport":[],"package_parts__enabled":false,"package_parts":[],"datacite_doi":"","datacite_doi_citation":"","_prc_seo_qr_attachment_id":0,"spoken_article_player_enabled":true,"displayBylines":true,"footnotes":"","prc_watchers":[724],"_prc_fork_parent":0,"_prc_fork_status":"","_prc_active_fork":0},"categories":[394,374,206,388],"tags":[],"bylines":[943,984],"datasets":[],"level_of_effort":[],"primary_audience":[2812,2811,2813],"information_type":[],"_post_visibility":[],"formats":[458],"_fund_pool":[],"languages":[],"regions-countries":[515],"research-teams":[519],"workflow-status":[],"collection":[],"class_list":["post-40928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational-attainment","category-higher-education","category-teens-youth","category-younger-adults","bylines-kim-parker","bylines-richard-fry","primary_audience-engaged-public","primary_audience-media","primary_audience-stakeholders","formats-report","regions-countries-united-states","research-teams-social-trends"],"label":"Report","post_parent":40679,"word_count":199,"canonical_url":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/11\/05\/section-4-attainment-of-some-college-education\/","art_direction":false,"_embeds":[],"watchers":[{"id":724,"name":"msolorzano","email":"msolorzano-temp@pewresearch.org","slack_user_id":"","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f86893a13d28433dcc6c4512a48b171b84ea93b30b59a30560a70570b12b1dec?s=48&d=mm&r=g"}],"table_of_contents":[{"id":40679,"title":"Record Shares of Young Adults Have Finished Both High School and College","slug":"record-shares-of-young-adults-have-finished-both-high-school-and-college","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/11\/05\/record-shares-of-young-adults-have-finished-both-high-school-and-college\/","is_active":false},{"id":40884,"title":"Section 1: Overall Educational Attainment","slug":"section-1-overall-educational-attainment","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/11\/05\/section-1-overall-educational-attainment\/","is_active":false},{"id":40897,"title":"Section 2: Bachelor\u2019s Degree Completion Among Young Adults","slug":"section-2-bachelors-degree-completion-among-young-adults","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/social-trends\/2012\/11\/05\/section-2-bachelors-degree-completion-among-young-adults\/","is_active":false},{"id":40911,"title":"Section 3: High School Completion Among Young 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