How COVID-19 affected Gen Z’s education
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Gen Z students were particularly affected by COVID-19. At the pandemic's start, people in the generation ranged from ages 8 to 23. The youngest are now in sixth grade. How much of Gen Z is college-educated, and how did the pandemic alter the generation’s education trajectory?
- The first Gen Zers turned 18 in 2015. Since then, the enrollment rate for four-year colleges among 18–24-year-olds has increased 0.6 percentage points, from 29.9% in 2015 to 30.5% in 2022. It peaked at 31.1% in 2016 (the highest point since data collection began in 1973).
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The oldest of Gen Z would have turned 25 in 2022. By then, 13.4% of people ages 18–24 earned a bachelor’s degree, and 39.6% earned an associate’s degree or had completed some college courses.
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However, enrollment was down overall for remaining Gen Z students. The largest change was among people ages 18–19 — high school seniors and college freshmen. Their enrollment dropped 3.4 percentage points from 2019 to 2022, the most of any age group. The second biggest drop was 1.7 percentage points among 20 to 24-year-olds.
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Younger people had less of a drop, with rates for 7- to 17-year-olds falling between 0.1 and 0.3 percentage points.
- In 2020, 56% of households reported changes in college plans for someone in their household in the fall 2021.
Study up on motivating factors behind Gen Z education trends in this article.
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Which states use the most federal aid?
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The federal government grants billions of dollars to state and local governments. These grants comprise a sizable portion of these smaller governments’ budgets. The federal government provided almost $1.3 trillion in grants to state and local governments in 2021, an increase of over $400 billion since 2019.
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California received the most from the federal government, $162.9 billion, followed by New York ($110.2 billion), Texas ($105.8 billion), Florida ($58.8 billion), and Pennsylvania ($57.1 billion).
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Alaska received the most per person, about $8,628, which was 26.5% more than the second-highest state, Rhode Island (receiving $6,821 per person). Florida received the least per person, about $2,693.
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Proportionally, however, Montana relied on federal funding the most, with 31.8% of the state's budget coming from federal funds. New Mexico followed (30.7%), then Kentucky (30.1%), Louisiana (29.8%), and Alaska (29.0%).
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Vermont received over $4.9 billion in federal grants in 2020 and 2021. But federal grants comprised 12.8% of its total budget in 2021, the smallest percentage of any state.
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Federal funding to state and local governments fell by 23.2% between 2021 and 2023 but was higher than pre-pandemic levels.
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Pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University, Yale, and other colleges grew over the weekend and into Monday, just as the House of Representatives passed an aid bill for Israel. For context, here’s a history of US aid to Israel.
The US Supreme Court just heard arguments about how cities address homeless encampments. We recently updated this article on cities with the largest homeless populations.
Did you know the US is home to 8% of the world’s forests? This Earth Day, get the data on which states have the most forestland — and see how forestland has grown nationally, bucking global trends.
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From 2016 to 2020, Alaska had the nation’s highest death rate from accidental, non-fire-related carbon monoxide poisoning, at 0.8 deaths per 100,000 people. California had the highest total number of deaths: 170.
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