NorthJersey

New Jersey knows things. Lots of things. Academic things, at least.

That’s because more people in New Jersey than in most other states have degrees from college, which, presumably, is where they learn a lot of these things.

Data released this week by the U.S. Census Bureau shows that 39.7 percent of New Jerseyans age 25 or older — more than one in three in that group — have at least a four-year college degree — and that figure is climbing. That puts the state behind only Washington, D.C. (think federal government), Massachusetts (think Harvard and MIT) and Colorado, according to an analysis by NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey.

Within New Jersey, Hunterdon, Morris and Somerset counties are the most educated; Passaic, Salem and Cumberland the least.

Around the nation, the figure is 32 percent. At the bottom of the pack is West Virginia, where 20.2 percent, or one in five, of the population have a four-year degree.

Included among the 2.3 million New Jersey residents with at least a bachelor's degree are 970,000 who went on to get a master’s degree or more. That ranks seventh among the 50 states.

Despite all that, the number of four-year diploma holders in New Jersey actually dipped a bit last year while the ranks of people with associate's, or two-year degrees, rose. Following a national trend, the count with two-year degrees has been rising throughout the decade, going from 368,000 in 2010 to 418,000 in 2017.

That comes as college tuition soars, leaving graduates of four-year schools with tens of thousands of dollars of student loans, while two-year schools are far cheaper.

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In New Jersey, private university tuition and fees ranged from $30,000 to $50,000 in 2017, according to the state Division of Higher Education. Even the state’s public university system, headed by Rutgers University, ran $12,000 to $17,000 for New Jersey residents. At the same time, community college tuition cost $4,000 to $10,000.

The growing number of degrees does not mean that everyone in the state is walking around doing calculus, reciting Shakespeare or plying a skilled trade commonly learned in community colleges. Among all adults 25 and older in New Jersey, one in 10 lacks even a high school degree – a number that declined for decades but has remained fairly consistent since 2010.

Nationally, one in eight did not get through high school.

In between are people with just high school educations, comprising 32 percent of the New Jersey population covered by the data, down from 34 percent in 2010.