Educational Attainment
Educational Attainment shares reflect the highest education level achieved by the working age population (25-64) of a region.
In Florida, approximately 46% of the population has achieved at least an associate’s degree.
Educational attainment can contextualize the economy, workforce supply, and reveal the premium of possessing a degree. In their recent report Florida Future Billions, Helios Education Foundation demonstrates that regions with higher educational attainment often experience a higher quality of life, with all residents able to reap the social, individual, and fiscal benefits of an educated population.
Wages by Education
Median annual wages by education level increase alongside educational attainment.
Obtaining increasingly advanced degrees can open doors to a variety of rewarding and stable career options while also raising holders’ earnings ceilings.
In Florida, the typical bachelor’s degree holder earns $58,016 annually – 62% more than those possessing a standard high school diploma as their highest form of education
Postsecondary Attainment
Florida’s SAIL to 60 goal calls for 60% of working-age (25-64) Floridians to have a degree or career credential by the year 2030.
Lumina’s Stronger Nation report captures this state postsecondary attainment and localizes further to the county level in addition to disaggregating by race to observe achievement gaps.
Currently, Florida is at 55.2% (46.8% with a degree, 8.4% with a career credential), ranking 26th among the 50 states, DC, and Puerto Rico.
GDP per Capita
Gross domestic product, the total market value of goods and services produced within a region’s border, is divided by the region’s population to obtain GDP per capita (GDPPC) — the average economic output per person
With a GDP of over $1.25 trillion, Florida ranks comfortably 4th in the country, while it ranks 33rd among the 50 states and D.C. in GDPPC. In the state, Orange County ranks 1st in 2023 with a GDPPC of $82,467.
Often used as an approximation of productivity in a region, 21st century GDP is driven by talent and can be used as a proxy for the deployment of human capital.
