seeking statistics for College Graduation %

[cthomer5000]

anyone have any idea what % of the general population are college graduates? Or where I can find such info?

I'm specifically interested in ages 25-40.

There's been a pretty hot debate around my office this morning around a few stats I found on a salespiece that I can't imagine are possibly grounded in reality.

[henry296]

The census web site www.census.gov will have those statistics from 2000 but I do not know if they are by age. Typically they are reported by the total population over 25.

[cthomer5000]

thank you, I appear to have found what I needed.

[cthomer5000]

In case anyone is wondering what got this started... I was browsing over something here at work that listed this tidbit (with no source listed)

94% of Gays and Lesbians are college graduates.

While not specifically mentioned there, other statements on this presentation speicifcally refer to ages 25-40, so I'll assume this stat does also.

I thought "absolutely no fucking way that stat is correct. No way."

If that stat were to be correct it would (to me) tell us:

1. Either gays/lesbians are born into an amazing combination of intelligence and financial stability

2. There is something about attending college which makes some people become gay/lesbian - resulting in an almost perfect relationship between being gay/lesbian and having graduated college.

Seeing that the national % of those having graduated college (ages 25-39) is ~28% confirms (to me) that there is no way the stat I stumbled upon is even close to reality. I find it hard to believe that the gay/lesbian graduation rate would be well over 3 times the national average.

[Barkeep49]

Lurking variable could be that those who go to College and those who will admit publicly to being gay are both more likely to be affluent. Correlation does not imply causation after all.

[cthomer5000]

Lurking variable could be that those who go to College and those who will admit publicly to being gay are both more likely to be affluent. Correlation does not imply causation after all.
I definitely concede that, but I think this statistic was more likely pulled completely out of thin air (since there is absolutely no source cited).

Statistics aside, I find it nearly impossible to believe that 94% of all the people who are gay and over 25 are college graduates.

If we could magically know the real answer, I'd be shocked if it were more than 50% (which would still be significantly greater than the national average).

[TRO]

If you have a college degree, you have more confidence in yourself and would be more willing to admit that you are gay. That's how I see it anyway.

[wade moore]

I have to go with ct on this...

No matter what factors you throw in there, I just do not see this as possible... even if you did stats for children of parents with an income of over $250,000/year who went to private school... you would not get anywhere near 94%...

[cthomer5000]

I have to go with ct on this...

No matter what factors you throw in there, I just do not see this as possible... even if you did stats for children of parents with an income of over $250,000/year who went to private school... you would not get anywhere near 94%...
exactly, that's really my point. Under no circumstance do I see this as a legit statistic. It's either completely bogus (made up) or the sampling was something ridiculous (i.e. We recently polled people at a Gay Alumni Luncheon for Rutgers University...)

[wade moore]

exactly, that's really my point. Under no circumstance do I see this as a legit statistic. It's either completely bogus (made up) or the sampling was something ridiculous (i.e. We recently polled people at a Gay Alumni Luncheon for Rutgers University...)

Is there anywhere you can go to attemp to find a source?

Are there people at your work that actually BELIEVE the statistics?

[cthomer5000]

Are there people at your work that actually BELIEVE the statistics?
2 or 3 of the 6 I spoke to about it thought it *might* be possible. As soon as I found the national %, it was easy to convince them otherwise.