91% of Utahns have diplomas

Easy access to local colleges and effective school districts are some of the factors that have helped boost Utah County's educational attainment levels by nearly 10 percent over the past decade.

Deseret News graphicEducation in Utah CountyRequires Adobe Acrobat.

More than one-third of Utah County residents older than 25 have at least a bachelor's degree, and 95 percent have obtained a high school diploma, according to results from the Census 2000 Supplementary Survey released Tuesday.

Statewide, more than a quarter of Utahns older than 25 had bachelor's degrees, and 91 percent had high school diplomas.

While Utah as a whole has relatively high educational attainment rates, according to the study, Utah County's rates experienced a noticeable increase from 1990 to 2000 and now dwarf national educational attainment rates.

Nationally, 81.6 percent of the population older than 25 had a high school diploma, and 25.1 percent of that population had a bachelor's degree.

In 2000, the percentage of people older than 25 with a bachelor's degree or higher in Utah County was 35 percent, up from 26.2 percent in 1990. The percentage of those who have graduated from high school or taken a high school equivalency test in 1990 was 87.9 percent and went up to 95 percent over the span of the decade.

The area's high level of educational attainment can be described as "phenomenal," said Neil Ashdown, deputy director of the Governor's Office of Planning and Budget.

Assistant Provo School District Superintendent Randy Merrill boasts about the academic success of Provo students. "Look at these," said Merrill, holding recently released results of college entrance exams. "These are very fine scores."

Median scores of Provo students this year on the American College Test, the college entrance test used for admission by Utah public colleges and universities, are higher than state and national averages.

Merrill would not be surprised if 90 percent of high school seniors in the 13,000-student district were college-bound. And it's the same story in Alpine and Nebo, Utah Valley's other two districts that also log high scores on ACT and advanced-placement tests.

A college education appears important to folks who live in Utah County, a largely white, politically conservative region with a reputation as a mecca for high-tech companies.

The survey's educational-rate figures correspond with Utah Valley State College's four-year degree expansion, which began in 1990.