How has education and the expectations of today’s youth regarding their education and their young adult lives changed over recent years? Well, according to a National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) study released this week, American youth not only hold a better education than students from years gone by, but also participate less in the labor force, put off having families and homes of their own, and have higher expectations for their futures - compared to their student peers from 1980, 1990, and 2000. The report, ‘America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood’ compares the current generation of youth and young adults in the United States to youth and young adults in 2000, 1990, and 1980.
Additional findings from the NCES report include:
- The number of youth and young adults (from the ages of 14 to 14) increased by 0.9 million since 1980 from 46.2 million to 47.1 million. However, their percentage of the U.S. population declined from 20 to 15 percent.
- The current generation of 18 and 24 is enrolled in school at higher rates than their predecessors in 1980. In 2009, some 69 percent of 18- and 19-year-olds were enrolled in school, compared with 46 percent in 1980.
- About 52 percent of 20- and 21-year-olds were enrolled in school in 2009, compared with 31 percent in 1980, and 30 percent of 22- to 24-year-olds were enrolled in school in 2009, compared with 16 percent in 1980, the report says.
- The number of young adult males (aged 20 to 24) in the labor force has dropped over ten percent since 1980. The number of young women in the labor force dropped only one percent.
- Between 1980 and 2010, the percentage of persons ages 20 to 24 who owned their own home decreased from 38 to 19 percent.
You can view and print the entire report ‘America’s Youth: Transitions to Adulthood’ here (pdf).
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(source: nces)
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