July 2006

High School Diploma or Higher, 2004

In the Fourth District states, 84.6% of the residents who were 25 or older in 2004 had attained a high school diploma, slightly beating the national average of 83.9%. The percentage of residents with high school diplomas was higher in Ohio and Pennsylvania than in the nation; however, Kentucky and West Virginia trailed the national average by 6.3% and 4.5%, respectively.

Bachelor's Degree of Higher, 2004

A similar pattern is apparent at the post-secondary level. The percentage of residents holding a bachelor’s degree lagged the U.S. average in Kentucky (by 8.0%) and West Virginia (by 10.7%). Although much closer to the national average, Ohio and Pennsylvania still trailed it by 3.7% and 2.3%, respectively.

Staying Home

When the Fourth District states’ 2004 high school graduates went on to college in the fall, the vast majority remained in their home states. In Kentucky, 89% of college-bound graduates stayed in the state. The percentages were similar in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, all of which are above the national average.

Net Flows

Besides educating its own residents, a state can raise educational attainment levels by importing people who earned college degrees elsewhere. Ohio has done poorly in this respect: In the last five years, the state suffered net annual losses of almost 17,000 people with a bachelor’s degree or higher. Kentucky, in contrast, imported more than 6,000 college grads annually during the same period.