More students were in college and high school and fewer were in nursery school, kindergarten and elementary school in the United States in 2006 than in 2000, reflecting demographic changes in the nation’s youth population, according to this first-ever report based on both the American Community Survey and the Current Population survey. The new hybrid report allows state-level analyses and state-to-state comparisons of such data for the first time.
Data show that 11 percent of the 2006 population ages 18 to 24 were high school dropouts, concentrated primarily along the nation’s entire southern border. Women continue to be enrolled at higher rates than men in both college (56 percent) and graduate school (59 percent). Enrollment in two- and four-year colleges and universities reached 20.5 million in 2006, up 3 million since 2000. One-third or more of the K-12 students in California, Texas and New Mexico spoke a language other than English at home, compared with about 3 percent of the students in Mississippi. Free, 16 pages. (301) 763-3030, www.census.gov/prod/2008pubs/p20-559.pdf.
