Educational Attainment (ACS)

The share of each Georgia community's adults 25 and over at each education level, from less than high school to a graduate degree - American Community Survey 5-year estimates down to the census-tract level.

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates
Year coverage: 2020–2024
Updated: annual
Version: 1.0.0
Schema hash: 62385068845d

Detail levels available

StateCounty · defaultDistrict

Overview

Educational attainment from the American Community Survey 5-year estimates (detailed table B15003, Educational Attainment for the Population 25 Years and Over), for Georgia at state, county, school district, and census tract geography, vintages 2020-2024. The 24 detailed attainment cells are collapsed into six levels (less than high school through graduate/professional degree); each row carries the level's share of adults 25 and over, the underlying counts, and 90 percent margins of error.

Row grain: One row per year, county_fips, district_code, tract_geoid, attainment_level.

Key metric

attainment_rate — Attainment Rate (proportion)

The single headline value most answers want.

JSON schema →Data contract (YAML) →

Variables

Every column in the fact table. The code is the exact field name the API returns.

Column	Type	Unit	Range	Null?	Description
`year`Year	integer	—	—	no	ACS 5-year vintage END year: 2024 covers the pooled 2020-2024 survey period. Consecutive vintages overlap. Full description▾ ACS 5-year vintage END year: 2024 covers the pooled 2020-2024 survey period. Consecutive vintages overlap.
`county_fips`County FIPS	string	—	—	yes	5-digit county FIPS code (state 13 + county). Populated only on county-level rows. Full description▾ 5-digit county FIPS code (state 13 + county). Populated only on county-level rows. Joins counties; adds its label columns.
`district_code`District Code	string	—	—	yes	GCD school district code (FK to the education districts dimension). Populated only on district-level rows - Census unified-school-district estimates mapped onto the ~180 standard districts via the dimension's district_census_id. Full description▾ GCD school district code (FK to the education districts dimension). Populated only on district-level rows - Census unified-school-district estimates mapped onto the ~180 standard districts via the dimension's district_census_id. Joins districts; adds its label columns.
`tract_geoid`Tract GEOID	string	—	—	yes	11-digit census tract GEOID (2020 boundaries). Populated only on tract-level rows. Full description▾ 11-digit census tract GEOID (2020 boundaries). Populated only on tract-level rows. Joins tracts; adds its label columns.
`attainment_level`Attainment Level	string	—	—	no	Highest education level attained, collapsed from the 24 B15003 cells: less_than_hs (no diploma), hs_grad (regular diploma or GED/alternative credential), some_college (no degree), associate, bachelors, graduate (master's, professional, or doctorate). The six levels are mutually exclusive and partition the 25+ universe exactly - there is no 'all' row. Full description▾ Highest education level attained, collapsed from the 24 B15003 cells: less_than_hs (no diploma), hs_grad (regular diploma or GED/alternative credential), some_college (no degree), associate, bachelors, graduate (master's, professional, or doctorate). The six levels are mutually exclusive and partition the 25+ universe exactly - there is no 'all' row. 6 allowed values▾ `associate` `bachelors` `graduate` `hs_grad` `less_than_hs` `some_college`
`attainment_rate`Attainment Rate	number	proportion	—	yes	Share of adults 25+ at this education level. Full description▾ Adults 25 and over whose highest attainment falls in this level, as a share of all adults 25 and over (0-1), derived as num_in_attainment_level / num_adults_25_plus. NULL when the geography has no 25+ population. A geography's six shares sum to 1.
`attainment_rate_moe`Attainment Rate Moe	number	proportion	—	yes	90 percent margin of error for attainment_rate, derived from the component margins with the Census ratio formula. Never the headline metric. Full description▾ 90 percent margin of error for attainment_rate, derived from the component margins with the Census ratio formula. Never the headline metric.
`num_in_attainment_level`Number in Attainment Level	integer	count	—	yes	Adults 25 and over whose highest attainment falls in this level (ACS estimate; sum of the level's B15003 member cells) - the rate's numerator. Full description▾ Adults 25 and over whose highest attainment falls in this level (ACS estimate; sum of the level's B15003 member cells) - the rate's numerator.
`num_in_attainment_level_moe`Number in Attainment Level Moe	number	count	—	yes	90 percent margin of error for num_in_attainment_level: the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares approximation over the level's member-cell MOEs (stored as Float64 and never rounded; integral for the single-cell associate and bachelors levels, where it is the published margin). Never the headline metric. Full description▾ 90 percent margin of error for num_in_attainment_level: the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares approximation over the level's member-cell MOEs (stored as Float64 and never rounded; integral for the single-cell associate and bachelors levels, where it is the published margin). Never the headline metric.
`num_adults_25_plus`Number Adults 25 Plus	integer	count	—	yes	Total population 25 years and over (ACS estimate, B15003_001) - the rate's denominator, repeated on each of the geography's six attainment rows. Full description▾ Total population 25 years and over (ACS estimate, B15003_001) - the rate's denominator, repeated on each of the geography's six attainment rows.
`num_adults_25_plus_moe`Number Adults 25 Plus Moe	integer	count	—	yes	90 percent margin of error for num_adults_25_plus, as published. Never the headline metric. Full description▾ 90 percent margin of error for num_adults_25_plus, as published. Never the headline metric.

Filters

Query parameters the fact endpoint accepts. Comma-separated values are OR within a parameter; multiple parameters AND together.

Parameter	Kind	Allowed values	Notes
`year`	year_exact	any value	—
`year_min`	year_range	any value	—
`year_max`	year_range	any value	—
`detail`	detail	`countiesdistrictsstatestracts`	enum-enforced, default: counties
`district_code`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`county_fips`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`tract_geoid`	foreign_key	any value	multi-value
`attainment_level`	categorical	`associatebachelorsgraduatehs_gradless_than_hssome_college`	multi-value, enum-enforced, pick one
`district_type`	dimension_attribute	7 allowed values▾ `commission_charter` `resa` `standard` `state_agency` `state_charter` `state_school` `state_special`	multi-value, enum-enforced

Example requests

Run these against the base URL — they return live data.

All rows (first page), counties level

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/educational_attainment"

counties data for 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/educational_attainment?year=2024"

Filtered to attainment_level = associate for 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/educational_attainment?year=2024&attainment_level=associate"

One district (code 660), 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/educational_attainment?district_code=660&year=2024&detail=districts"

One county (FIPS 13121), 2024

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/educational_attainment?county_fips=13121&year=2024&detail=counties"

Download 2024 as CSV

curl "https://georgiacivicdata.org/api/v1/census/educational_attainment?year=2024&format=csv"

Notes & limitations

NULL handling

Suppressed cells (too few students to report) are NULL, never zero.
Zero is a real, reported value.

Limitations

Universe: the population 25 years and over - attainment of younger adults is not covered, and each geography's six attainment shares describe adults only. There is no 'all' attainment row; the num_adults_25_plus denominator rides every row instead. hs_grad includes GED and other alternative credentials, not just regular diplomas. For the four multi-cell levels (less_than_hs, hs_grad, some_college, graduate) num_in_attainment_level_moe is the Census sqrt-sum-of-squares approximation over member-cell margins, not a published margin; for associate and bachelors the level is a single B15003 cell, so the Census's published margin is carried through unchanged. attainment_rate_moe uses the Census ratio formula on the derived share; a degenerate derived margin above 1.0 is set to NULL. ACS 5-year period estimates: the year column is the vintage END year and each estimate pools five years of survey responses (2024 = 2020-2024). Consecutive vintages share about 80% of their sample, so the series is heavily smoothed - never difference overlapping vintages as if they were annual change. Estimates are survey-based and carry 90% margins of error (the *_moe columns); tract-level margins can be large relative to the estimate. All levels serve vintages 2020-2024 only, on 2020-vintage tract boundaries. State rows have NULL county_fips, district_code, and tract_geoid; county rows carry only county_fips, district rows only district_code, tract rows only tract_geoid. District rows cover the ~180 standard (city/county) districts only: the Census publishes school-district estimates at unified school district geography, which has no codes for charter schools, RESAs, or state agencies, and its few Census-only districts (e.g. the Fort Stewart military district) have no GCD district code and are dropped.