July’s poll shows an interesting pattern – readers of this blog have a good deal of education.
That happens to match earlier data about LinkedIn itself, but the trend may not be holding. Let’s look further.
Half with Master’s
That’s right – if you were to glance to the blog reader on your right, you’d probably be looking at someone who holds a Master’s Degree (if you don’t happen to be holding one yourself!).
I’ve always seen stats that LinkedIn users were highly educated, well placed within organizations, and earned a nice amount of money, but I didn’t know HOW well educated the readers of this blog were.
Charts and such
I notice that June’s results didn’t get out until July 4th, and hope that my summer busy-ness can be excused again.
And take note – there isn’t going to be just one chart this month – I’ve got a bonus chart down below to drive home a point about how exciting this is.
Visitors were asked to respond to this question:
What’s your level of education?
Results of Education Poll
Short on the ends
Nobody indicated they had a PhD or other advanced degree (guess there goes my credibility with the Lawyers…), and just a few indicated less than high school, high school, or an associates degree.
Bachelors – Nearly 30%.
Masters – Just under 50%.
80% with degrees
No, that’s not 80 degrees (though I think we’ll reach that temperature outside today), that’s 80 percent of the readers having an undergraduate degree – or better.
Educational attainment in the US
This is the phrase used to indicate how well educated people are – what is their educational attainment.
Here’s a chart driven with data from that site:
Educational Attainment in the United States
Those with Master’s – just seven and a half percent.
Educational attainment on LinkedIn
Here’s where it gets both interesting and muddy…
in 2008, LinkedIn said that 80% of LinkedIn users had degrees, and in 2009, that figure was 77%. (I don’t have data from the wayback machine to support this, but am looking at others reporting the marketing “audience” from these points in time, and I have no reason to question the numbers given)
Currently, the page at http://marketing.linkedin.com/audience is suggesting to me that 58.4% of US users list a college degree. I can’t quite rationalize the labels that say “Reach” and “Comp”. Reach is suggesting that they “get to” 8.9 million people with a degree, but that falls far short of 58% of the 44 million American accounts that they list just above.
But – if they were reporting 80%, and then 77%, and now 58% – the trend seems clear…
Only so many people with degrees
If they brought in every individual in the US with a degree, they’d fall short of the numbers they want/need.
And to save myself from any flaming comments – it doesn’t matter to me, and I have no notions about what anyone can or cannot do based on their education. I thought it would be an interesting question to ask.
(and I do note that the attainment measure in the Wikipedia article talks about those who are 25 and over, so if you’re younger than that, you don’t even make the chart;-)
Next up – influence
I’m not thinking that readers would be happy to reveal any income information, but let’s look at another aspect of LinkedIn’s user profile – how influential they are. This is perhaps biased, but do you consider yourself influential?
Note – I’ve got several ways to say “yes” in the poll, and you’re welcome to pick the one you feel most comfortable with.
Look for it – just over to the right and up.
To your continued success,
steve
—
Steven Tylock
http://www.linkedinpersonaltrainer.com
http://www.linkedin.com/in/stevetylock