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Educational and Community-Based Programs

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High school completion, 1998, 2007, and 2009

Increase Desired

SOURCE: Current Population Survey (CPS), Department of Commerce/Census Bureau and DOL/BLS.

NOTES: Data are for the proportion of persons aged 18–24 years not enrolled in grades 7–12 who reported that they had received a high school diploma or its equivalent. Prior to 2003, respondents were asked to select one race category; selecting more than one race was not an option. The single race categories include persons who reported only one racial group. Persons of Hispanic origin may be of any race. 

Confidence Interval= 95% confidence interval.


The proportion of persons aged 18–24 years not enrolled in grades 7–12 who reported that they had received a high school diploma or its equivalent increased 5.6% between 1998 and 2009, from 85.0% to 89.8%, and varied by race and ethnicity. For example, in 2009, 95.9% of Asian or Pacific Islander persons aged 18–24 years reported that they had received a high school diploma, compared with 93.8% of non-Hispanic white, 87.1% of non-Hispanic black, and 76.8% of Hispanic or Latino persons aged 18–24 years.

Revised: Monday, August 25, 2014

National Snapshots Help


A User's Guide

  1. National snapshots provide a visual display of progress for selected objectives in each Healthy People 2020 Topic Area, whenever data are available.

  2. The snapshot heading describes the snapshot theme, the population to which the snapshot applies (when needed for clarification), and the data year(s). The snapshot heading is not meant to capture the full scientific scope of the objective(s) that is (are) displayed. The user can find complete technical information about the objective(s) in the Data Details.

  3. The snapshot visual display is generally one of three types: a line graph, a bar chart, or a map. 

  4. The snapshot notes and footnotes indicate any technical information about the data that the user needs to correctly interpret the visual display, together with any key data limitations (when applicable). Although the snapshots are intended to be standalone, the user should consult the objective(s) Data Details for the full range of methodology issues that may impact interpretation.

  5. The snapshot source(s) indicate the data source(s) used to create the visual display.

  6. Age-adjusted data are adjusted using the year 2000 standard population.

  7. Education and income are the primary measures of socioeconomic status in Healthy People 2020. Unless otherwise noted, income is defined as a family’s income before taxes; thus, the terms “income” and “family income” are used interchangeably in the snapshots.

  8. To facilitate comparisons among groups and over time, while adjusting for family size and for inflation, Healthy People 2020 categorizes family income using the Poverty Threshold (PT), sometimes also referred to as the Federal Poverty Level (FPL), developed by the Census Bureau. Unless otherwise overridden by considerations specific to the data system, the five categories of family income primarily used are: 

    1. Below the PT (i.e., less than 100% of the PT) 

    2. At 100%–199% of the PT 

    3. At 200%–399% of the PT 

    4. At 400%–599% of the PT 

    5. At or above 600% of the PT.

  9. A snapshot narrative paragraph highlights some key features of the visual display. The narrative text is not meant to provide an exhaustive analysis of the data displayed. For a more in-depth analysis, the user should refer to the applicable data table(s) and objective(s) Data Details.

  10. The user should keep in mind the following: 

    1. When two rates or proportions are highlighted for comparison (and measures of variability are available), the user may interpret the highlighted difference to be statistically significant at the 0.05 level, unless otherwise stated.

    2. Only selected differences are highlighted in the narrative text. Differences visible in the visual data display but not highlighted in the text still may well be statistically significant.

Revised: Monday, August 25, 2014