States With The MOST College Degree Holders (PHOTOS)

According to Census data, 37.8 percent of U.S. adults age 25 to 34 have college degrees. So which states (including Washington, D.C.) have the highest proportion of college graduates compared to that average? Click through to find out -- and check out the Chronicle of Higher Education's interactive data map for complete stats from across the country.

How did your state fare?

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Washington D.C.: 63.5%

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Comments

[Giovanni Loew]

10:51 AM on 07/19/2010

What about Virginia? Why is it not on the list. I did not attend a Virginian college, but I have friends who went to William & Marry and UVA, both excellent institutions

[Factonfact]

11:14 PM on 07/03/2010

Too many folks are well schooled but poorly educated.

Think about it.

Clue: GWB.

Got it?

[RIPRNC]

04:49 AM on 06/29/2010

The eastern half of Washington State is like a brick tied to the ankle of the western half as it tries to swim for shore.

[diahni]

06:05 PM on 06/25/2010

I love the irony - Hufffington Post's list of growing college towns aren't in the states with the highest percentage of college graduates. What gives?

[Giovanni Loew]

10:52 AM on 07/19/2010

College students aren't college graduates because they haven't graduated yet, and in college towns many grads leave the town back home when they graduate. Having a college town is not enough, you have to have businesses, non-profits, and major industries around

[artgurrl]

03:09 PM on 06/23/2010

I'm having difficulty believing California isn't on that list. Maybe the population is just so huge that the ratio doesn't make the cut.

[Johnagain]

12:38 AM on 06/22/2010

Louisiana ranks 49th in % college grads. Only Arkansas beat us. Woohoo!

The map of % college graduates looks like a perfect inverted Red state map. More education, less red. What a surprise.

[diahni]

06:08 PM on 06/25/2010

coming from the People's Republic of Massachusetts, I'm not surprised. My state, incidentally, also has the lowest divorce rate. So much for red "family values."

[StephenS]

03:34 PM on 06/28/2010

Yep, Massachusetts (blue in the 2008 presidential election) has the lowest divorce rate, followed by Iowa (blue).The highest divorce rate is in Nevada (blue), followed by Arkansas (red). Not counting D.C. (blue and very low rate), 8 of 10 with the lowest divorce rates are blue, while 8 of 10 with the highest divorce rates are red.

CA, GA, HA, IN, LA, and MN do not report rates.

http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/births_deaths_marriages_divorces/marriages_and_divorces.html

[kent1]

03:22 PM on 06/13/2010

First DC is not a state, Second why use percentage, why not use actual numbers of degrees per state, Third this slanted to reflect the Eastern Coast, Fourth lets start over and use actual numbers per population. Would you like to bet that states like California, Texas, Florida, Michigan, sounds like MidWest and West would likely come out on top. Somehow, I don't see this study being redone to reflect actual numbers, just percentages.

[daa5417]

09:21 AM on 06/14/2010

Percentages would be more accurate. If there are 6 degree holders out of 10 in one state and there are 8 out of 30 in another state, it would be better to use percentages because the 6 represents 60% while the 8 represents 26.67%. You wouldn't be able to compare and contrast numbers.

[veritas88]

03:13 AM on 06/13/2010

mostly blue states. quite telling.

[MagCynic]

04:42 PM on 06/13/2010

Yeah. It must be all those liberal arts degrees, right?

[veritas88]

04:55 PM on 06/13/2010

What's your point? A degree is a degree, and "liberal arts degrees" are the most common. I bet you're one of those simpletons who doesn't realize that one can obtain a "liberal arts degree" (BA) in Economics, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, etc. You probably think "liberal arts degree" only pertains to English, History, Art History, etc.

[artgurrl]

03:11 PM on 06/23/2010

Actually, there are many CEO's and business leaders who have liberal arts degrees. What's your point?

[logic-a-go-go]

12:33 AM on 06/26/2010

My thoughts, exactly. Critical thinking ability and blue politics go hand in hand.

[Takebackourmoney]

12:47 PM on 06/12/2010

DC is not a state which is why the author put it in parathesis but it is tax at a state rate; hence our motto no taxation without representation.

[LogicOnlyPlease]

01:36 AM on 06/19/2010

Seeing as thousands of lawmakers live their part-time and see what happens there on a daily bases, I would say D.C. has more representation than any state. How about we just move the capitol? You wouldn't like that because all that money would leave also.

[KGTKGT]

09:51 AM on 07/02/2010

We in DC are smart enough to know that you don't have a clue !

[H21960H]

12:46 PM on 06/12/2010

The "states" with those "educated" people also seem to be broke, especially the "state" of Washington DC.

[GAQT466]

03:34 AM on 06/13/2010

So you're saying you prefer to be rich and stupid.

[DSWynne]

06:57 PM on 06/13/2010

Well, it worked for Paris Hilton all these years...

[LogicOnlyPlease]

01:38 AM on 06/19/2010

Are you saying having a college degree automatically makes someone "not stupid."

Getting into debt for worthless degrees is stupid. Thus, most grads are stupid. Finding legals way to become successful is "smart."

[GreyBird]

01:43 AM on 06/23/2010

Bad news alert: all states, red or blue, educated or not, are going broke.

[MJVs Common Sense]

07:42 PM on 06/11/2010

Most of the TOP states are states with industries that require a high level of education or states that have a large number of colleges and universities compared to their population (giving their residents many opportunities to pursue higher education). For Example:
Minnesota = high concentration of tech companies and corporate offices (such as Target and Best Buy).
New York = high concentration of business and finance companies.
Massachusetts = high concentration of major law firms (numerous Top 40 firms hiring thousands of lawyers).

This isn't at all surprising considering New England has had a system of higher education for a very long time and the Midwest (Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, etc) was one of the first regions to invest heavily in public higher education by building large state schools. One would expect that as a result these states would have a more educated population.

[StillIRise]

05:37 PM on 06/11/2010

I wonder how the Historically Black Colleges, which are predominately located in the South, fit into these statistics. Colleges like Morehouse and Spellman, Fisk and Clark ... and my very own Tennessee State University ... colleges throughout the South that are the alma mater of many of our most notable black personalities, past and present.

I wonder if these colleges were even considered in the calculation ...

[ilovemyprez]

01:10 AM on 06/12/2010

I'm sure they considered all colleges.

[sealdadeal4me]

05:05 PM on 06/11/2010

The reason you see more states in the south uneducated is because of slavery and the train of thught that went along with slavery. If they could get the slaves from reading and learning they could keep them under control. This same attitude and behavior consist in the south as long as people are ignorant you can control them and keep wages low and keep them in proverty.This is the reason you have so many people in the south who are not open minded and exhibit prejudice views about people who they consider different. But the south will rise again as it will only be possible to advance with education. As people are educated they begin to think for themselves and begin to believe for themselves.

[docbets]

02:31 AM on 06/13/2010

Is your assertion congruent with the proportion of blacks in the population?

Don't think you have accounted for the white people who don't go to college.

Or is this because people who thought slavery was a good idea didn't need no eddication to tell them they were superior?

[DSWynne]

07:17 PM on 06/13/2010

Education has nothing to due with prejudice. Many intellectuals of the 19th century felt (like Karl Marx and Margaret Sanger) that African-Americans were inferior. Initial developments of anthropology used incorrect methods to conclude that AA were inferior, by proclaiming that bone structure was a sign of intellectual development. Finally, those that conducted the Tuskegee experiments felt that Blacks were incapable of possessing reason, and were naturally prone towards promiscuity, hence the justification of syphilis experiments. Basically, the reason for slavery was purely economic, and the people who justified its implementation by saying that Blacks were inferior based upon religion (i.e. the "Curse of Ham" argument). Still, even then, religion has been both used to enslave and justify racism, but also to fight against racism (particularly in the New Testament). Thus, neither science nor religion can be for or against racism, but rather, IMO, we dealing with ignorance and a lack empathy on the part of those who are beholden to power over the oppressed. BTW, in the 1920s, the KKK had a membership of over 20 million people...out of a population of 106 million, and most of those people were from the North. Furthermore, President Wilson, a scholar and believer in a one-world governance framework (the League of Nations), approved the Birth of a Nation, a racist film. So, geography has nothing to do with racism; class-ism does.

[bigcypress]

04:22 PM on 06/11/2010

That picture of Vermont is incredible.

[docbets]

02:32 AM on 06/13/2010

Your comment made me smile. So did the picture. It used to be my home.

[phredralf]

03:03 PM on 06/11/2010

87% of the 10 states with the most college degree holders are blue states, 85% of the 10 states with the least college degrees are red states. There's a pattern here.

[kwoodberryesq]

03:16 PM on 06/11/2010

I'm going to extrapolate...

Smart states vote Democrats and Dumb States vote Republican?

[phredralf]

04:27 PM on 06/11/2010

That's what it's looking like. That is is you consider having a college degree being a factor in intelligence. The great minds of our civilization are generally college educated.

[MNJim]

11:58 PM on 06/11/2010

I have always thought of it as the Republicans being able to convince people in those red states to vote against their own best interests. Now seeing that they are states with the least educated populations, my theory might make sense.

[missouriwatcher]

06:15 PM on 06/11/2010

Exactly. Ignorant folk are much easier to manipulate with emotional rhetoric instead of educated reason. The founding fathers would not be pleased with the current situation.

[Geauterre]

10:38 AM on 06/12/2010

Hmm, are you sure of that?

[LogicOnlyPlease]

01:50 AM on 06/19/2010

Like "Hope and Change" emotional rhetoric? People went crazy for that and they were all duped. Anyone with a little common sense and a head for numbers could figure out that Obama's promises would drastically drive up the deficit.