By John A. Tures, Professor of Political Science, LaGrange College

There’s been a lot of evidence showing the value of a college degree for a student, but also a lot of talk about how such degrees are overrated. There may be benefits for the community of attracting a lot of degree holders. To test this, I look at the 50 states as well as DC, seeing if there’s a relationship between a state’s percentage of college graduates, and the GDP of the state.

Every year, my students and I look at the value of a college degree, for a student. We look at how much a college student earns annually from age 21 through retirement age, and compare that to a high school graduate’s earnings. Even adding ages 18-21 to the high school earnings, and subtracting college tuition from the college graduate earnings, collegians earn far more over their lifetime.

Last year, we “discovered that the average college graduate earns $60,000 per year, and over 44 years (ages 22-65) earns $2.64 million (though Forbes says it’s more like $2.8 million over one’s career). Take out the average costs of college, and that’s still about $1 million more over a lifetime.” And that doesn’t even cover the gap between high school graduates and graduate schools, which typically require a college degree for acceptance into a program.

Data on the percentage of college graduates by state comes from Voronoi and Visual Capitalist. The information about a state’s economy, as measured by real gross domestic product per capita, comes from Statista.

The average across America for states with residents holding a college degree is 36 percent. For states with a below-average number of college graduates, the average real GDP per capita is $56,706.70. For states counting an above-average number of college graduates among their residents, the average real GDP per capita is $76,257.10. And the difference is significant (t = 3.07, p<.001).

Southern states, on average, tend to have a below-average percentage of college graduates (31.33 percent, as compared to non-Southern states, which have 37.72 percent). Southern states also have a below-average percentage real GDP per capita: $53,433 for Southern states and $69,475 for non-Southern states. And the difference is significant as well, (t=2.24, p<05).

Luckily, Georgia is in a better position than most Southern states to attract college degree-holders, with 35 percent. The Peach State is tied with Florida and ranks just behind North Carolina (37 percent) and Virginia (42 percent). Several Southern states don’t even meet the thirty percent threshold for college graduates.

So what can states, especially Southern states, do in order to boost their percentage of college graduates? For starters, they could get their Congressional delegation to double Pell Grants. Washington DC sports a college graduate percentage of 66,000, and a real GDP per capita far higher than most states. Here’s more about why doubling Pell Grants matters.

The next best thing a state can do is provide incentives for local students to attend college, the way the Peach State did with Zell Miller and HOPE scholarships, and similar programs. That’s probably explained why the state is very close to the national average for college grads (and in the top quarter of the South). Perhaps vouchers to attend private colleges might help Georgia.

John A. Tures is a professor of political science at LaGrange College in LaGrange, Georgia. His views are his own. He can be reached at jtures@lagrange.edu. His “X” account is JohnTures2.