Price of a lost education: How education affects hunger, housing, wealth, and health

Objective: To examine and quantify the degree to which low educational attainment impacts the prevalence of societal distress.

Methods: Using microdata from the most up to date and accurate national data sources available from reputable agencies (e.g. U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention), we determined the prevalence of distress in housing, health, income and food security based on the educational attainment level of the respondent. Statistics on the prevalence of poor educational attainment, its trends, and its determinants will also be presented.

Results: Adults without a high school education were five times more likely to live in a food insecure household, more than twice as likely to live in a household with moderate to severe physical problems, and more than four times more likely to report fair or poor health status compared to adults with a bachelor's degree. In addition, adults without a high school education had a median net worth that was less than 12% that of adults with a bachelor's degree. While the percentage of adults graduating from high school continues to increase, attainment gaps between racial, ethnic, and economic groups persist.

Conclusions: Adults with less education are poorer, sicker, and face food and housing insecurity at levels far beyond better educated Americans. Arguments for the importance of improving educational attainment can be made from a variety of perspectives as education has such far-reaching impact, from welfare dependency to crime prevention.