Do you have a college degree? How much is it worth in dollars and cents?

Over the span of a 40-year career, it’s worth a lot more than you might think, according to a new Census Bureau report.

In most cases, the bureau found, the impact that education has on lifetime earnings is five times greater than any other demographic factor.

Here are some key findings:

• Black males with a high school diploma can expect to earn an average of $1,340,407 over a 40-year span, assuming they work full-time, year-round. In contrast, those with a bachelor’s degree will pull in an average of $2,107,728.
   
• Black women who held high school diplomas and worked full-time, year-round average $1,070,827, compared with $1,859,380 for those with bachelor’s degrees.
   
• For every race or gender, lifetime income rose with higher levels of education.
   
• Overall, white males had higher lifetime earnings than any other group at every education level, with the exception of those with a master’s degree, which was topped by Asian males, and those with a professional degree, where Asian males were not significantly different from white males.
   
• Some groups -- non-Hispanic white males, Asian males and Asian females -- benefit more than others from higher levels of education. Blacks and Hispanics tended to benefit less.

The report, released Thursday, showed that lifetime earnings can be affected by a host of factors, including race and Hispanic origin, gender, citizenship, English-speaking ability and geographic location. But the greatest determinant was education.

Click here to download a copy (.pdf) of the full report.

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