This indicator represents the percentage of a state’s labor force that has earned at least a 4-year undergraduate degree. High values indicate a higher concentration of individuals with higher education qualifications in a state. Knowledge-intensive businesses seeking to relocate may be attracted to states with high values on this indicator. Workers with at least a bachelor’s degree have an advantage over less-educated workers in expected lifetime earnings.

Estimates of state labor forces and educational attainment have been developed by the Census Bureau. Data are derived from the American Community Survey (ACS), the largest household survey in the United States, with a sample size of about 3.5 million addresses. The ACS collects information on an annual basis and assigns workers to a state based on where they live. Bachelor’s degree holders include those with degrees awarded by both public and private institutions and in S&E and non-S&E fields. Because these values are estimates, small differences in the values of the indicator between states or across time are generally not meaningful.

Data source: Census Bureau, special tabulations of the American Community Survey.