EMBARGOED UNTIL: 12:01 A.M. EDT, AUGUST 14, 1998 (FRIDAY) Public Information Office CB98-139 301-457-3030/301-457-3670 (fax) 301-457-4067 (TDD) e-mail: pio@census.gov Jennifer Day/Andrea Curry 301-457-2464 More Than 3 Million Young Adults Constitute "Dropout Pool," Census Bureau Reports Thirteen percent (3.1 million) of the nation's young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 in October 1996 belonged to a so-called "dropout pool," meaning they were neither high school graduates nor enrolled in school, according to the Commerce Department's Census Bureau. This percentage is slightly lower than it was one year earlier. The embargoed tabulations may be accessed at http://www.census.gov/dcmd/www/embargo/embargo.html. After the release time, go to http://www.census.gov/prod/3/98pubs/p20-500.pdf. [In PDF Format] Other highlights include: - More than one-fourth (70.3 million) of the nation's residents, were enrolled in regular schools (i.e. schooling that leads to a high school diploma or college or postgraduate degree). This includes 4.2 million in nursery school, 4.0 million in kindergarten, 31.5 million in elementary school, 15.3 million in high school and 15.2 million in college. The numbers in nursery school and kindergarten are not significantly different from one another, nor are the numbers in high school and college. - Eleven percent of elementary school students and 8 percent of high school students attended private schools. - Nearly 3 in 10 high school students ages 15 and over held down jobs in October 1996. - The annual high school dropout rate (from grades 10-12) was 4.7 percent. (This rate is the proportion of students who dropped out of school in a single year.) - About 4 of every 10 college students were 25 years old or over and 55 percent were women. These tabulations are contained in School Enrollment Social and Economic Characteristics of Students: October 1996 (Update), P20-500, which consists of a one-page report and a series of detailed tables (PPL-76) with statistics on the number of U.S. residents enrolled in school by a variety of characteristics. They include age, enrollment level, sex, race, Hispanic origin, type of school, attendance status, employment status, family type, income, region, metropolitan status, mother's labor force status and education level, marital status and years of school completed. Some historical data, on topics such as dropout rates and the age distribution of college students, also are provided. A paper version of the report and detailed tables may be obtained from the Census Bureau's Public Information Office. Data are from the October 1996 Current Population Survey. As in all surveys, the data are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error.-X-Editor's Note: The Public Information Office now has a media-access server for embargoed news releases and data sets. It is available to accredited media representatives only. To gain access, please contact us for a username and password. The media-access server's Internet address is http://www.census.gov/dcmd/www/embargo/embargo.html. We would appreciate any comments you may have about the site. The Census Bureau pre-eminent collector and provider of timely, relevant and quality data about the people and economy of the United States. In more than 100 surveys annually and 20 censuses a decade, evolving from the first census in 1790, the Census Bureau provides official information about America's people, businesses, industries and institutions.
