Some College
About
Percentage of adults ages 25-44 with some post-secondary education. The 2025 Annual Data Release used data from 2019-2023 for this measure.
The relationship between higher education and improved health outcomes is well known, with more years of formal education correlating strongly with opportunities for better health through higher incomes, better employment options, increased social benefits, reduced psychosocial stress, and healthier lifestyles. Students’ ability to access quality education and attend college is not distributed equitably because of historical and current policies and practices that disadvantage people of color, families with lower incomes, students with disabilities, and LGBTQ+ students.1,2
Data and methods
Data Source
American Community Survey, five-year estimates
The American Community Survey (ACS) is a nationwide survey designed to provide communities with a fresh look at how they are changing. It is a critical element in the Census Bureau's reengineered decennial census program. The ACS collects and produces population and housing information every year instead of every ten years, and publishes both one-year and five-year estimates. We use American Community Survey data for measures of social and economic factors.
Website to download data
For more detailed methodological information
Key Measure Methods
Some College is a percentage
Some College is the percentage of the population ages 25-44 with some post-secondary education, such as enrollment in vocational/technical school, junior college, or four-year college. It includes individuals who pursued education following high school but did not receive a degree as well as those who attained degrees.
Caution should be used when comparing these estimates across years
Caution should be used when comparing data across years as data comes from overlapping five-year spans. Additionally, margins of error for five-year estimates containing data collected in 2020 increased compared to prior five-year estimates. For more information about data comparability please visit Comparing 2022 American Community Survey Data.
Measure limitations
This measure does not describe the quality nor amount of post-secondary education obtained. People move between counties and the percentage of adults with post-secondary education living in a place may not directly reflect opportunities for education in that county. The Education, Employment, Income, and Family & Social Support measures can provide additional information to help interpret the measure of Some College.
Numerator
The numerator is the total number of individuals ages 25-44 with any post-secondary education.
Denominator
The denominator is the total number of individuals ages 25-44.
Can This Measure Be Used to Track Progress
This measure can be used to track progress with some caveats. It is important to note that the estimate provided in the Health Snapshots is a five-year average. However, for counties with a population greater than 20,000, single-year estimates can be obtained from the resource below.
Finding More Data
Disaggregation means breaking data down into smaller, meaningful subgroups. Disaggregated data are often broken down by characteristics of people or where they live. Disaggregated data can reveal inequalities that are otherwise hidden. These data can be disaggregated by:
- Age
- Gender
- Race
- Subcounty Area
You can find data on educational attainment stratified by age and gender, and you can calculate the educational attainment of the population age 25 and over by race (tables A-G). For many communities, you can access these same tables at the census tract or census block level.
References
- Ross CE, Mirowsky J. Refining the association between education and health: The effects of quantity, credential and selectivity. Demography. 1999;36:445-460.
- Virginia Commonwealth University Center on Society and Health. Why education matters to health: Exploring the Causes. Brief No. 1. 2015.