Human Capacity: Educational Attainment
Educational attainment is perhaps the most important factor in providing the creative, talented workforce needed for metropolitan areas to compete in a global economy.
Percent of Population Age 25 and Over
With a Bachelor's Degree or Higher, 2000
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According to work done for CEOs for Cities by the Brookings Institution, a metropolitan area's median household incomes increased, on average, approximately 1 percent for every 2 percentage point gain in its share of college graduates. At 28.5 percent, the Kansas City area's share falls in the middle of its peers, but significantly behind the three leaders.
Percent of Population Age 25 and Over
With a Bachelor's Degree or Higher by Census Tract, 2000
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Within the region, college graduates are most highly concentrated in Johnson County, Kan. The pattern of college education is highly correlated with the pattern of median household income: areas that have college graduation rates above the regional average are concentrated in the same suburbs where median household incomes are above average.
Percent of Population 25 and Over
With a Bachelor's Degree or Higher by Race, 2000
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Black and Hispanic educational attainment rates are significantly less than whites in all peer metros, including Kansas City, suggesting a general undervaluation of minority intellectual talent.
The peer metros fall clearly into two groups where attainment of a bachelor's degree by black residents is concerned — four that hover around 20 percent, and four with rates below 15 percent. Kansas City falls into the latter group.
St. Louis is the leader in Hispanic educational attainment, but its Hispanic population is much smaller than the rest of the peer group. Kansas City's Hispanic educational attainment is approximately equal to the average of its peers.
Relative Proportion of Population 25 and Over
With Bachelor's Degree or Higher Black/White, 2000
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Examining the same data as a proportion of white educational attainment, we find that blacks are generally only half as likely to have earned a bachelors degree as whites, with blacks in the Kansas City area slightly lower than that.
The lone exception is Salt Lake City, where blacks have 70 percent of the college graduation rate of whites. This is as much due to Salt Lake's relatively low proportion of whites with a college degree, though, as it is due to the relatively high proportion of degreed blacks.
Scientist and Engineering Occupations as a Percent of Total, 2004
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November 2004 Metropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates.
Occupations defined used all life science, physical science and engineering occupations.
In part because its overall level of educational attainment lags the leaders in its peer group, the Kansas City region also lags in the proportion of its workforce engaged in science and engineering occupations.
Because a good portion of innovation is science based, this lag diminishes the region's relative capacity to innovate.
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