DataPoints: Associate attainment in Appalachia

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Appalachia has a higher percentage of working-age adults with an associate degree but no bachelor’s degree than the national average, according to a new federal report that examines trends in the Appalachia region.

In 2016-20, 10.2% of adults ages 25 to 64 in Appalachia had an associate degree but not a baccalaureate, compared to 9.3% nationally, shows the annual data overview from the Appalachian Regional Commission released last week. That’s also a nearly 1 percentage-point increase (0.8) compared to 2011-2015.

Central Appalachia and Kentucky’s Appalachian section had the largest gains in the share of working-age adults whose highest education attainment was an associate degree, the report says.

Source: Appalachian Regional Commission, “The Appalachian Region: A Data Overview from the 2016-2020 American Community Survey,” September 2022.

In 74 Appalachian counties, at least one in eight working-age adults had an associate degree as their highest level of education, the report says. The share of associate degrees only was 11% or more in Appalachian sections of Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

But there were an equal number of counties (74) where working-age adults with only a two-year degree were less than 7.5%. All but eight of those counties were in Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia, according to the report.

The region saw even higher increases (2.7 percentage points between 2011-15 and 2016-20) among working-age adults with bachelor’s degrees or higher, but it is still far behind the national average (26.9% versus 34.3%, respectively). However, the figure did exceed the national average in certain sections of Appalachia, such as counties in large metro areas, the report notes.

Source: Appalachian Regional Commission, “The Appalachian Region: A Data Overview from the 2016-2020 American Community Survey,” September 2022.

About the Author

Matthew Dembicki
Matthew Dembicki edits Community College Daily and serves as associate vice president of communications for the American Association of Community Colleges.