7 ms·

Interesting: "By 27 years of age, 32 percent of women had received a bachelor's degree, compared with 24 percent of men. " This is a rather strong antidote to

Interesting: "By 27 years of age, 32 percent of women had received a bachelor's degree, compared with 24 percent of men. " This is a rather strong antidote to the idea that everyone gets a college degree: "At 27 years of age, 28 percent of individuals had received their bachelor's degree while 38 percent had attended some college or received an associate's degree." Also interesting: "At 27 years of age, 34 percent of young adults were married, 20 percent were unmarried and living with a partner, and 47 percent were single, that is, not married or living with a partner."

cheez 13y ago
These stats are amazing for me to read as it reminds me of the bubble I live in.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  HN itself is a bubble. Who comes here? Techies. Tech is not representative of other industries at all.
mgkimsal 13y ago
Agreed on the college thing. If you were to believe media reports, > 70% of young adults have college degrees (and large loans accompanying those degrees).
- randomdata 13y ago
  That's interesting. I've never heard anyone claim above 30%. Though I've read the enrolment rate is in the 60% range, which could make your loan part true (within some margin of error). Canada, considered the most educated nation, has, if I recall correctly, 64% of the population with some post-secondary achievement. But note that includes university, community college, trades, etc.
  - mgkimsal 13y ago
    I'm not saying media reports claim those numbers, but, at least in the media I read/watch, the student loan debt problem is presented as something affect a large majority of young people. Really, it's affecting a large majority of young college-going students (which is probably self-evident) but it's generally not clarified as such.
rwc 13y ago
Contrast the 34% married figure and 47% single figure with this fact: "Nearly 41 percent of young adults had their own or their partner's child in the household at age 27."
- pedrosorio 13y ago
  More than 50% were married or cohabiting. That would make it possible for every single child to be in a household being raised by a couple. This is probably the figure you are looking for: "Sixty-five percent of married individuals had at least one child in the home, compared with 21 percent of single individuals"
Camillo 13y ago
> "By 27 years of age, 32 percent of women had received a bachelor's degree, compared with 24 percent of men. " And because of the huge inertia in political discourse, the gap will have to reach something like 50% vs 20% before it even becomes acceptable to raise this as an issue.
- sliverstorm 13y ago
  I'm sure to some groups it will never be acceptable. 100% vs 20%? We like those numbers, but let's see if we can't lower the second one! Thankfully while real, those are fringe groups. So I guess my point is that there will probably always be resistance/people who reject bringing it up out-of-hand.
- ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
  I doubt it. In America "victim culture", "David vs Goliath", "hatred of the rich", "_____ privilage" and "the haves and have nots" mindset controls who gets sympathy and who does not. If women have less degrees or make less than men guess who gets the blame? Where as if men have less degrees or make less than women in the household it's automatically assumed it's men's own fault and no one is to blame. Why? Because only the squeaky wheel gets the grease, if you don't squeak you don't get grease.
- scarmig 13y ago
  Although that sentence doesn't refer to it, something to keep in mind: there are the race and class variables lurking in there. IIRC if you're upper-middle class and white (and Asian, I'm guessing), the gender gap disappears. That doesn't mean that we're not failing our young boys; we certainly are. But it's always useful to break it down by race and class, especially in the States. A deeper question is why? If our culture is biased against boys, you might expect the gap to appear in all racial and economic classifications. My hypothesis is that we're in the midst of a giant pauperization: technology is eating most real jobs. In recent decades, however, there's still been a relative abundance of salaried jobs that require stability and organizational and interpersonal skills, which women, either by genes or socialization, are better at. So there's a real difference in investment payoff for a woman to go to college than a man, given their existing skill sets [1]. So more women go to college [2]. For now, at least. Give it a decade or two and I'm predicting an even lower proportion of men and women both going to college, particularly those in marginalized communities whose labor wouldn't be improved to the point that capital needs them to to make more real profits. [1] One way to confirm that would be whether a man with a college degree makes less money than a woman with an equivalent degree. Which I think is the case but want to find a real cite for it. [2] Another hypothesis: traditional male archetypes are falling by the wayside. Discarding those is a strategy people are using, consciously or no, to try to build up the interpersonal skills of men. I don't know how to test this, however.
eldavido 13y ago
28% is about the national average in the US, interesting that this isn't changing much in young vs old. [1]. Also, the distribution is quite bimodal, a small number of US MSAs have tons of college grads (Boston, SF, NYC) vs. huge tracts of the US with few graduates at all. [1] "Coming Apart" by Charles Murray, highly recommended.
danjayh 13y ago
I really wish they'd broken that group down a little more to identify how many had obtained advanced degrees. I'm curious about whether there's truth to the idea that 'the master's degree is the new bachelor's degree.'

cheez 13y ago

These stats are amazing for me to read as it reminds me of the bubble I live in.

sliverstorm 13y ago
HN itself is a bubble. Who comes here? Techies. Tech is not representative of other industries at all.

mgkimsal 13y ago

Agreed on the college thing. If you were to believe media reports, > 70% of young adults have college degrees (and large loans accompanying those degrees).

randomdata 13y ago
That's interesting. I've never heard anyone claim above 30%. Though I've read the enrolment rate is in the 60% range, which could make your loan part true (within some margin of error). Canada, considered the most educated nation, has, if I recall correctly, 64% of the population with some post-secondary achievement. But note that includes university, community college, trades, etc.
- mgkimsal 13y ago
  I'm not saying media reports claim those numbers, but, at least in the media I read/watch, the student loan debt problem is presented as something affect a large majority of young people. Really, it's affecting a large majority of young college-going students (which is probably self-evident) but it's generally not clarified as such.

rwc 13y ago

Contrast the 34% married figure and 47% single figure with this fact: "Nearly 41 percent of young adults had their own or their partner's child in the household at age 27."

pedrosorio 13y ago
More than 50% were married or cohabiting. That would make it possible for every single child to be in a household being raised by a couple. This is probably the figure you are looking for: "Sixty-five percent of married individuals had at least one child in the home, compared with 21 percent of single individuals"

Camillo 13y ago

> "By 27 years of age, 32 percent of women had received a bachelor's degree, compared with 24 percent of men. " And because of the huge inertia in political discourse, the gap will have to reach something like 50% vs 20% before it even becomes acceptable to raise this as an issue.

sliverstorm 13y ago
I'm sure to some groups it will never be acceptable. 100% vs 20%? We like those numbers, but let's see if we can't lower the second one! Thankfully while real, those are fringe groups. So I guess my point is that there will probably always be resistance/people who reject bringing it up out-of-hand.
ChrisNorstrom 13y ago
I doubt it. In America "victim culture", "David vs Goliath", "hatred of the rich", "_____ privilage" and "the haves and have nots" mindset controls who gets sympathy and who does not. If women have less degrees or make less than men guess who gets the blame? Where as if men have less degrees or make less than women in the household it's automatically assumed it's men's own fault and no one is to blame. Why? Because only the squeaky wheel gets the grease, if you don't squeak you don't get grease.
scarmig 13y ago
Although that sentence doesn't refer to it, something to keep in mind: there are the race and class variables lurking in there. IIRC if you're upper-middle class and white (and Asian, I'm guessing), the gender gap disappears. That doesn't mean that we're not failing our young boys; we certainly are. But it's always useful to break it down by race and class, especially in the States. A deeper question is why? If our culture is biased against boys, you might expect the gap to appear in all racial and economic classifications. My hypothesis is that we're in the midst of a giant pauperization: technology is eating most real jobs. In recent decades, however, there's still been a relative abundance of salaried jobs that require stability and organizational and interpersonal skills, which women, either by genes or socialization, are better at. So there's a real difference in investment payoff for a woman to go to college than a man, given their existing skill sets [1]. So more women go to college [2]. For now, at least. Give it a decade or two and I'm predicting an even lower proportion of men and women both going to college, particularly those in marginalized communities whose labor wouldn't be improved to the point that capital needs them to to make more real profits. [1] One way to confirm that would be whether a man with a college degree makes less money than a woman with an equivalent degree. Which I think is the case but want to find a real cite for it. [2] Another hypothesis: traditional male archetypes are falling by the wayside. Discarding those is a strategy people are using, consciously or no, to try to build up the interpersonal skills of men. I don't know how to test this, however.

eldavido 13y ago

28% is about the national average in the US, interesting that this isn't changing much in young vs old. [1]. Also, the distribution is quite bimodal, a small number of US MSAs have tons of college grads (Boston, SF, NYC) vs. huge tracts of the US with few graduates at all. [1] "Coming Apart" by Charles Murray, highly recommended.

danjayh 13y ago

I really wish they'd broken that group down a little more to identify how many had obtained advanced degrees. I'm curious about whether there's truth to the idea that 'the master's degree is the new bachelor's degree.'