What does this measure?

The number of residents with a particular level of education in a region, expressed as a percentage of all residents 25 and older, broken down by race and ethnicity.

Why is this important?

An educated population makes a more attractive workforce. Well-educated workers likely have access to more economic opportunities than workers with less education. High educational attainment represents a region's investment in human capital and preparation for long-term growth. Large disparities between education levels by race can signal disparities in access to opportunities by race.

How is our county performing?

In 2013-17, the share of Berks County residents who held a bachelor's degree or higher was highest among Asian Americans, at 40%, followed by whites, 25%, African Americans, 16%, and Hispanics, 9%. At the state level, a higher share of Asian American (55%), white (31%) , African American (18%) and Hispanic residents (15%) had college degrees than in Berks. The share of Asian Americans (53%), African Americans (21%) and Whites (32%) with a Bachelor's degree in the United States was higher than Pennsylvania and Berks County except for Hispanics (15%) who matched the state. In the City of Reading, a smaller share of residents of all races had college degrees than in the county as a whole (14% of Asian Americans, 10% of whites, 9% of African Americans, and 6% of Hispanics).

Since 2000, the share of residents without a high school degree declined among all racial and ethnic groups in Berks County, ranging from an 8 percentage-point drop among whites to about 16 points among Hispanics. All groups had increases in their share of residents who had attended some college or earned a college degree, except Asian Americans, who had no change among people with at least a bachelor's. Asian Americans had the highest share of those receiving a bachelor's degree or higher in 2000 and 2013-2017 at 40%.

Among neighboring counties in 2013-17, while racial and ethnic disparities persisted, Chester and Montgomery counties had larger shares of all groups with at least a bachelor's degree. Chester had higher percentages of Asian Americans (80%) and whites (51%) with college degrees. Montgomery had higher percentages of African Americans (32%) and Hispanics (29%) with college degrees. Reading had a smaller share of residents with college degrees than Berks for all racial groups. Lancaster had similar education levels to Berks.

Notes about the data

For additional detail as to how the Berks County regions are defined and which boroughs and townships are included in each, see the About Us page.

Adults are people 25 and older. The multi-year figures are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. The bureau combined five years of responses to the survey to provide estimates for smaller geographic areas and increase the precision of its estimates. However, because the information came from a survey, the samples responding to the survey were not always large enough to produce reliable results, especially in small geographic areas. CGR has noted on data tables the estimates with relatively large margins of error. Estimates with three asterisks have the largest margins, plus or minus 50% or more of the estimate. Two asterisks mean plus or minus 35%-50%, and one asterisk means plus or minus 20%-35%. For all estimates, the confidence level is 90%, meaning there is 90% probability the true value (if the whole population were surveyed) would be within the margin of error (or confidence interval). The survey provides data on characteristics of the population that used to be collected only during the decennial census. Data for this indicator are released annually in December.

There may be additional research available on this topic. Click on Reports and Resources to learn more.