Trends: Associate degrees rise in Benton, Franklin counties

Adults in Benton and Franklin counties are increasingly likely to hold associate’s or vocational degrees.

Benton-Franklin Trends, a statistical service of the Institute for Public Policy and Economic Analysis at Eastern Washington University, reports that 11 percent of adults age 25 or older in the two counties had earned a two-year degree in 2014, up from 9 percent in 2005.

For Benton County, the percent of residents age 25 and older whose highest degree was from a two-year school was 12.1 percent. That’s up from 9.3 percent in 2005.

In Franklin County, 8.6 percent of residents over the age of 25 had earned a two-year degree, up from 8.4 percent in 2006.

The local figures echo an overall increase in community college degrees at the state and national level. Ten percent of all Washington residents age 25 and older earned a two-year degree as their highest educational level in 2015 and 8.2 percent of U.S. residents.

Benton-Franklin Trends is an initiative of Eastern Washington University to measure the economic, educational and civic life of the community based on data from reliable state and federal sources. Its research is available at bit.ly/bftrends.

This story was originally published March 5, 2016 at 8:18 PM with the headline "Trends: Associate degrees rise in Benton, Franklin counties."