Technology People and Productivity - High School And More By Race

Educational attainment, viewed by major ethnic groupings, shows the same pattern of steady increase. The chart shows the percent of people, 25 years or older, who have four years of high school or higher education. Data for whites are not available for 1950 and data for Hispanics were not reported until 1980; data for 1960 were unavailable; instead, values for 1962 are shown.

The following pattern of increases in qualifications shows the differences between groups shown graphically above:

Racial/Ethnic Group % gain 1980 to 1990	All Races Whites Blacks Hispanics	% gain 1990 to 2000
All Groups	9.0	6.5
Whites	8.6	5.8
Blacks	15.0	12.3
Hispanics	5.5	6.2

Overall results are clearly raised by the strong gains posted by African Americans in these periods. Asian Americans, not shown as a separate category in the Census data used in this analysis, typically have higher educational attainment than whites.

In the 1990 to 2000 decade, the white population 25 years and older grew 5.7%, the black population grew 15.9%, and the Hispanic 49.4%. In 2000, the Hispanic population as a whole (all ages included) was also the youngest: the Hispanic median age was 26.6, the black was 30.5 and the white was 38.5. These factors may affect productivity in the future. We discuss that subject in the last panel in this series.

Source: U.S, Bureau of the Census, U.S. Department of Commerce, Current Population Survey, March 2000. Data on population and median age drawn from Statistical Abstract of the United States, 2000, Table 18, p. 19.