Dropout Facts
- Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone – that's 7,000 a day.
- More than a quarter of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.
- On average, only 58% of students in America's 50 largest cities make it to graduation.
- More than one in four Hispanic youth drop out, and nearly half of those leave by the eighth grade.
- Hispanics are twice as likely as African Americans to drop out. White and Asian American students are least likely to drop out.
- High school students from low-income families are six times more likely to drop out than students from higher income families.
- High school graduates who have not enrolled in college are twice as likely to be unemployed as high school graduates who have enrolled in college. High school dropouts are three times as likely to be unemployed.
- Recent dropouts will earn $300,000 less than high school graduates, and over $1.4 million less than college graduates with bachelor's degrees, in their lives. See chart below (click to enlarge):
- MY TURN students at the Boston Youth Job Rally
- Dropouts make up nearly half the heads of households on welfare.
- In the U.S., high school dropouts commit about 75 percent of crimes.
- The U.S. loses more than $26 billion in federal and state income taxes each year from the 23 million high school dropouts aged 18 to 67.
- The dropout problem is likely to increase substantially through 2020 unless significant improvements are made.
- The U.S.’s high school graduation rate ranks 19th in the world. Forty years ago, we were number one.
U.S. Department of Labor
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The National High School Center