Honolulu’s high school
grads put it in top 10
for U.S. citiesA survey ranks cities in terms
of residents with diplomas
WASHINGTON >> Honolulu ranks 10th among U.S. cities in the percentage of residents with high school diplomas, according to Census Bureau figures released yesterday.
The bureau said 86.8 percent of Honolulu residents had a high school diploma or equivalent degree during a 2002 survey. Raleigh, N.C., had the highest percentage of high school graduates among cities with 250,000 or more people, 92 percent, followed by Seattle with 91.1 percent.
Statewide, 87.1 percents of Hawaii residents had a diploma, placing it 14th in the nation.
Mostly rural states in the West and Midwest have the highest percentage of residents with high school diplomas, according to the figures.
Wyoming leads the nation with 90.2 percent of residents 25 and older having graduated from high school, followed by Utah at 90.1 percent. Minnesota, Alaska and Nebraska were next, each with rates of at least 89 percent.
"This seems to be more related with minority composition and levels of immigration in these states than an urban-rural phenomenon," said Mark Mather, an analyst with the Population Reference Bureau, a Washington-based research group. Whites tend to be more educated than blacks and Hispanics.
Mather said even urban areas in the top states typically had higher percentages of high school graduates than urban areas in states like California, Texas and Alabama, which have large minority populations.
A key for rural areas of the Midwest is to reverse the "brain drain" phenomenon, in which younger, more educated people leave for jobs in cities, said Mark Drabenstott, director of the Center for the Study of Rural America, in Kansas City, Mo.
"Farm kids from these states have gone to a university and never looked back," he said.
Mississippi has the lowest rate of adults with high school diplomas at 75 percent, more than 7 points below the U.S. average of 82.6 percent.
Kentucky, Louisiana, Texas and West Virginia had the next lowest rates. Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas are states with high minority populations, while Kentucky and West Virginia are in Appalachia, among the poorest regions in the country.
The data come from the 2002 American Community Survey, which the government is testing as an annual replacement for the census "long form" sent out at the start of each decade.
Some top city locations had major universities in or near the city, such as Minneapolis, Minn., and Lexington-Fayette, Ky., while others were close to major military installations, such as Colorado Springs, Colo., and Virginia Beach, Va.
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Diploma rate
Cities with 250,000 or more people in 2002 ranked by the percentage of residents with high school diplomas, including equivalency degrees.
City percentage Raleigh, N.C. 92.0 Seattle 91.1 Anchorage, Alaska 91.0 Virginia Beach, Va. 90.6 Lexington, Ky. 89.3 Minneapolis, Minn. 88.7 Colorado Springs 88.5 Charlotte, N.C. 88.4 Portland, Ore. 87.8 Honolulu 86.8 United States 82.6
Source: U.S. Census Bureau