2002 College Enrollment and Work Activity of High School Graduates — 2003-06-25

Over sixty-five percent of the high school graduating class of 2002 were enrolled in colleges or universities in the fall, the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the U.S. Department of Labor reported today. This proportion was 3.5 percentage points higher than a year earlier and was the highest rate reached since 1998. Information on school enrollment and the work activity of high school graduates comes from an October supplement to the Current Population Survey (CPS). The CPS is a monthly nationwide survey of about 60,000 households that obtains information on employment, unemployment, earnings, demographics, and other characteristics of the civilian noninstitutional population age 16 and over. Additional information about the October supplement is included in the Technical Note. Among the 2.8 million high school graduates in 2002, 1.8 million (65.2 per- cent) were enrolled in college the following October.