Some random statistics: percent of people in the United States age 15 and over with a BA (four year college degree): 25 percent. With an MA (six year college degree): 9 percent. With a PhD: 1 percent.

Some even crazier statistics: percentage of people age 16 and over who have a BA or above but don't have a job: 24 percent. Percentage in the population as a whole: 38 percent. Percentage of those with less than a BA: 43 percent.

This all stems from a conversation a couple weeks back where someone told me that only 4 percent of people have an MA or above. I thought that sounded dubious, so I went to look (which reminds me: Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Educational Attainment in the United States: 2004). The speaker was both right and wrong - if we look at total population, which is very close to 300 million, the percentage is lower - about 3 percent of the population. But if we look only at the adult population, which I think was more what we had in mind during the conversation, it's a much higher number.

Worth noting: I thought about throwing out people under 18, but doing so would have eliminated the approximately 4000 16- and 17-year-olds who have BAs. Who knew?

I wonder if the numbers are somewhat surprising because of our own experiences and the company we keep. You have your Master's and I am one semester away from one, plus several of our friends also have or are pursuing advanced degrees. Similarly, because we have many academic contacts, we know a lot of additional people with PhDs. People in our various workplaces may have had additional degrees, quite likely an MBA; international workers may come in with their own advanced degrees (it seemed to be common at my last job). So our own experience is somewhat skewed.

I have to agree with Erik... we are all far too pretentious for our own goods. Ok, so Erik didn't really say that, I used my powers of, um, whatever the hell it is called to come to that skewed interpretation.

Oh - at no point did I suggest that I was not overeducated - I'm merely pointing out that quite nearly one in ten adults are overeducated. I find the numbers ridiculously high - honestly, do we -need- that much education? Do we need 75 million BAs and 30 million MAs clogging up a system composed primarily of jobs anyone could do?

Whoops - fell afoul of my own stats - that should be 27 million and 11 million....

Heh heh... I see all the higher education is paying off, counting-wise and all.

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