Bachelor's Degree Attainment by ZIP Code: Where College Concentrates

Roughly 35% of U.S. adults age 25 and over hold a bachelor's degree or higher. That number is rising about half a percentage point per year and varies enormously by place — from below 10% in some Appalachian counties to above 80% in places like Palo Alto, CA and Cambridge, MA.

What the data captures

Census table B15003 reports the highest degree attained by every U.S. resident age 25+, in 25 categories from 'no schooling completed' through 'doctorate degree.' City Zip Compare aggregates the bachelor's-and-above categories (B15003_022 through B15003_025) into the single 'bachelor's or higher' percentage you see on every place page.

We also report 'high school or higher' (B15003_017 and above) — a useful basic-literacy proxy that ranges from about 75% to 99% across U.S. ZIPs.

Why education concentrates

College graduates cluster around universities, large metros, and high-income suburbs because those are where degree-requiring jobs are. The clustering is self-reinforcing: high local attainment lifts wages, which raises home prices, which excludes lower-income households, which raises attainment further.

This is the single most important variable to control for when comparing places — a high local income may simply reflect that everyone in the ZIP is a college graduate, not that the local labor market is unusually strong.