Trends: Tri-Cities losing ground on graduate degrees

If the measure of a community is the number of residents with college degrees, then this week’s Benton-Franklin Trends report is a mixed blessing.

The percent of Benton and Franklin residents age 25 or higher with a bachelor’s degree rose between 2005 and 2014. But the rate for those with graduate and higher degrees declined over the same period.

Here’s how the numbers shake out.

In 2014, 16.1 percent of Benton and Franklin residents had earned a bachelor’s degree, an increase of almost 16 percent over 2005. Over the same period, the rate of those holding graduate degrees fell to 9 percent, from 9.3 percent.

Statewide, 18.8 percent of Washington residents held a bachelor’s degree, a drop of 4 percent. The percent holding a graduate or higher degree rose to 11.4 percent, from 10.4 percent.

Richland has always celebrated its above-average educational status because of the heavy presence of U.S. Department of Energy and its contractors at Hanford and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. That hasn’t changed.

In 2014, 25.2 percent of the city’s residents held a bachelor’s degrees and an additional 18.5 percent held graduate degrees or higher.

Kennewick and Pasco had identical educational attainment rates: 14.5 percent of residents held bachelor’s degrees in 2014 and 7.1 percent held graduate degrees or higher.

The figures are calculated from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey results.

Trends is an initiative of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis at Eastern Washington University. It posts hundreds of statistical measurements of the region’s civic, economic and cultural life.

The information is free and published at bit.ly/BFTrends.

This story was originally published February 19, 2016 at 6:49 PM with the headline "Trends: Tri-Cities losing ground on graduate degrees."