Article By Leonardo Blair
The share of American adults who say a college education is “very important” has reached its lowest level in 48 years and is even lower among men, Republicans, white adults and non-college graduates, according to a new Gallup study.
Gallup polled 1,200 adults from Aug. 3 to 24 and found that just under a third (31%) of American adults now think a college education is “very important,” 4 percentage points below the previous low, recorded last year. In 2013, just over a decade ago, 70% of American adults said a college education was “very important.”
The historic low comes amid Americans’ growing frustration over the rising cost of higher education and what many see as its diminishing returns.
Some 32.1% of the population 25 and older holds at least a bachelor’s degree, according to data from the American Community Survey.
Gallup compared 2019 data with this year’s results and found double-digit declines in every demographic group, including women, in the share who see a college education as “very important.”
The steepest drop came among black Americans. In 2019, 65% of black Americans said a college education was “very important,” second only to Hispanic adults at 66%. In 2026, that share fell 25 percentage points to 40%, similar to the current figures for women and Democrats.
In 2019, 62% of Democrats and 57% of women said a college education was “very important.” So did 53% of college graduates, at least 50% of independents and non-college graduates, and more than half of all Americans 35 and older. Today, that share is below 50% in every demographic group Gallup measured.
Republicans showed the least confidence in college as a high-value investment in 2026, with just 22% calling a college education “very important.” Men (26%) and white adults (27%) were the only other groups in the poll below 30%. Thirty percent of non-college-educated respondents said a college education is “very important,” compared to 38% of college-educated respondents.
Despite the apparent souring on college, Gallup polling from 2025 shows most parents still prefer their child to pursue a two- or four-year degree immediately after high school.
As both men and women with degrees have grappled with diminishing returns, many men in recent years have chosen to forgo college.
“If I was going to be a doctor or a lawyer, then obviously those people need a formal education. But there are definitely ways to get around it now,” Daniel Briles, a graduate of Hastings High School in Hastings, Minnesota, told The Wall Street Journal in 2021. “There are opportunities that weren’t taught in school that could be a lot more promising than getting a degree.”
Research highlighted by The Christian Post in 2021 suggested that Americans without a college degree face a “bleak” and deadlier future than those who have one.
In their working paper, “The Great Divide: Education, Despair and Death,” Princeton researchers Anne Case and Nobel Prize-winning economist Angus Deaton, who are husband and wife, found that “deaths of despair” — deaths from drugs, alcohol and suicide — are largely concentrated among Americans without a four-year degree. They also found that a college degree appears to act as a shield against such deaths.
“Deaths of despair, morbidity and emotional distress continue to rise in the U.S. The increases are largely borne by those without a four-year college degree — the majority of American adults,” the researchers wrote in the paper. “For many less-educated Americans, the economy and society are no longer providing the basis for a good life. Concurrently, all-cause mortality in the U.S. is diverging by education — falling for the college-educated and rising for those without a degree — something not seen in other rich countries.”
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