The College Connection: The Education Divide in American Social and Community Life
Survey
Dec. 2021
Sample Size:
5,058
Demographics:
US adults
Topics:
Student Support
Admissions And Enrollment
Affordability
Top Findings:
- Nearly half (47 percent) of college-educated Americans have at least five close friends, compared to about one-third (34 percent) of those without a degree. Since 1990, the number of Americans without a college education who have five or more close friends has fallen 30 percentage points.
- Nearly one in four (24 percent) Americans with no college education reported having no immediate social connections, compared to 9 percent of college graduates.
- Nearly three-quarters (73 percent) of college graduates said they very often or often feel like they have people they can turn to.
- Roughly half of White Americans with a college degree (49 percent) and those without any college education (49 percent) have no friends of a different race or ethnicity.
- Two-thirds (66 percent) of Americans with a college degree report having a "third place," local spots where they spend time when they are not at work or home, such as local parks, coffee shops, or bars, while less than half (46 percent) of those without a college education say the same.