Educational attainment in rural America rises, but urban areas widen the degree gap

Formal educational attainment in rural (nonmetropolitan) America has grown over time, but the attainment gap between rural and urban (metropolitan) areas persists. From 2000 to 2023, the share of adults ages 25 and older with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased in rural areas from 14.9 to 23 percent. In the same time span, the share of adults in urban areas with a bachelor’s degree or higher increased from 26.3 to 38.3 percent, widening the rural-urban gap from 11.4 to 15.3 percentage points in these two reference periods. This chart appears in the USDA, Economic Research Service topic page Rural Education, published in September 2025.