Americans’ faith in the value of a college degree has hit its lowest point since Gallup began asking the question in 1978, according to new polling from the firm.
Just 31 percent of respondents now say a college education is “very important” to attain, down four percentage points from last year and a steep drop from the 70 percent who said the same in 2013. Over that same span, the share calling college “not too important” jumped from 6 percent to 29 percent.
The slide is not confined to any one political or demographic group. Gallup notes that women, middle-aged and older adults, Democrats, Black and Hispanic adults, and college graduates all still rate college as more important than their counterparts do, but every one of those groups has seen a double-digit decline since 2019, when majorities in each group called college very important.
“Americans have increasingly questioned the importance of a college education over the past 13 years. The share saying it is very important has fallen to a record-low 31%, while the percentage saying it is not too important has climbed to about the same level. The long-term decline spans major demographic groups, even as women, Democrats, people of color and college graduates remain relatively more likely than their counterparts to consider college very important,” Gallup concluded.
Gallup points to cost as one likely driver of the shift. A separate survey from the firm found that only 12 percent of Americans consider a college degree affordable.
The findings track with a broader erosion of trust in higher education generally. A Gallup poll from July found only 38 percent of Americans reported a “great deal” or “quite a lot” of confidence in higher education as an institution, down from 42 percent the year before.
Even so, Gallup found that most parents still want their children to go straight to college after finishing high school, suggesting the skepticism has not fully translated into a rejection of the degree as a life path.
