The percentage of United States residents 25 years and older who completed high school or higher levels of education reached 90 percent for the first time in 2017, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Tuesday.
As students prepare to return to school, San Antonio remains behind the nation, state, and county in education attainment levels, an analysis by the Rivard Report shows. In 2016, the percentage of the city’s adults over 25 who completed high school or higher levels of education was 81.6 percent, compared to 82.3 percent for Texas and 83.4 percent for Bexar County. In Austin, it was 88 percent.
However, San Antonio’s level of education attainment is trending upward. The percentage of the adult population in San Antonio with a high school diploma or greater increased by 3 percent since 2009, the latest data from the American Community Survey shows.
At the zip code level, the percentage of adults graduating from high school ranged from a low of 53 percent in 78207 to near 100 percent for the zip code containing Lackland Air Force Base. In general, educational attainment is higher in the north and northwest parts of the city.
In about 39 percent of Bexar County’s 86 zip codes, 90 percent or more of the adult population holds a high school diploma.
Tuesday’s report showed that since 1997, high school graduation rates for Hispanics increased at a faster rate than for whites or blacks nationally, up from 55 percent in 1997 to 71 percent in 2017. In San Antonio, education levels for Hispanics increased by 0.4 percent since 2015, according to American Community Survey estimates. The percentage of Hispanic adults with a high school diploma or greater ranges from 51 percent on the city’s inner West Side to 100 percent for the zip code containing Lackland.
Inequities in school finance, poverty, student homelessness, and limited English proficiency are among factors that contribute to disparities in education attainment in San Antonio.
You can find the data behind this story on the Rivard Report‘s open data portal or here.
