In March 2011, for the first time ever, more than 30 percent of U.S. adults 25 and older had at least a bachelor’s degree, the U.S. Census Bureau has reported. As recently as 1998, fewer than one-quarter of people this age had this level of education.

Overall, the increase in the proportion of the population with a bachelor’s degree or higher went from 26.2 percent to 30.4 percent.

Those with bachelor’s degrees weathered the recession better. People with a bachelor’s degree had lower rates of unemployment than those with less education in every month from January 2008 to December 2010. This period included all but one month of the recent recession, which began in December 2007 and ended in June 2009.