Fewer Americans See College as Essential, Gallup Poll Finds
A new Gallup poll released Thursday shows that Americans view a college education as less essential today than they did in the past.
Over the last 15 years, the share of adults who consider college “very important” has fallen to 35%. Another 40% say it is “fairly important,” while 24% believe it is “not too important.”
Back in 2019, 53% of U.S. adults said college was very important. That number had already dropped from 70% in 2013 and 75% in 2010. Meanwhile, the percentage of those who think college isn’t very important has more than doubled since 2019, compared to just 4% in 2010.
Every major demographic group is less likely today to see higher education as highly important than they were 12 years ago.
The initial drop was steepest among younger adults ages 18 to 34, according to Gallup. But in recent years, older Americans have shown an even sharper decline, leaving only about one-third of adults in any age group who now see college as very important.
Historically, women, minorities, college graduates, and Democrats were more likely than other groups to value higher education—a trend that continues. Still, fewer than half of those groups now describe it as very important.
Among Republicans, 39% rate college as fairly important, while the same percentage say it’s not too important.
Even among college graduates, enthusiasm has cooled. Just 40% say higher education is very important, while 46% call it fairly important and 12% say it’s not too important. Non-graduates are split: 31% say college is very important, 32% say not too important, and 37% say fairly important.
Overall, most Americans continue to see some value in a degree—rating it at least fairly important—but they are much less likely than five years ago to call it essential.
Confidence in higher education has eroded more among Republicans than Democrats over the last decade, often tied to concerns about political bias on campuses. Still, the drop in viewing college as “very important” has occurred across both parties.
