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Digest of Education Statistics
2002 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest


Table 106. General Educational Development (GED) test takers, and number and distribution of credentials issued, by age: 1971 to 2001

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________
         |Number of|Number com- | Number of |Percentage distribution of credentials
         |  test   |pleting test|credentials|    issued\4\, by age
  Year   | takers, |  battery,  |  issued,  |__________________________________________________________
         |in thou- |  in thou-  | in thou-  |19 years old|20- to 24-|25- to 29-|30- to 34-|35 years old
         |sands\1\ |  sands\2\  | sands\3\  |  or less   |year-olds |year-olds |year-olds |  or over
_________|_________|____________|___________|____________|__________|__________|__________|____________
    1    |    2    |     3      |     4     |     5      |    6     |    7     |    8     |     9
_________|_________|____________|___________|____________|__________|__________|__________|____________
1971\5\ .|      377|         ---|        227|        --- |      --- |       ---|       ---|         ---
1972\5\ .|      419|         ---|        245|        --- |      --- |       ---|       ---|         ---
1973\5\ .|      423|         ---|        249|        --- |      --- |       ---|       ---|         ---
1974 ....|      ---|         ---|        294|          35|        27|        13|         9|          17
1975 ....|      ---|         ---|        340|          33|        26|        14|         9|          18
         |         |            |           |            |          |          |          |
1976 ....|      ---|         ---|        333|          31|        28|        14|        10|          17
1977 ....|      ---|         ---|        332|          40|        24|        13|         8|          14
1978 ....|      ---|         ---|        381|          31|        27|        13|        10|          18
1979 ....|      ---|         ---|        426|          37|        28|        12|        13|          11
1980 ....|      ---|         ---|        479|          37|        27|        13|         8|          15
         |         |            |           |            |          |          |          |
1981 ....|      ---|         ---|        489|          37|        27|        13|         8|          14
1982 ....|      ---|         ---|        486|          37|        28|        13|         8|          15
1983 ....|      ---|         ---|        465|          34|        29|        14|         8|          15
1984 ....|      ---|         ---|        427|          32|        28|        15|         9|          16
1985 ....|      ---|         ---|        413|          32|        26|        15|        10|          16
         |         |            |           |            |          |          |          |
1986 ....|      ---|         ---|        428|          32|        26|        15|        10|          17
1987 ....|      ---|         ---|        444|          33|        24|        15|        10|          18
1988 ....|      ---|         ---|        410|          35|        22|        14|        10|          18
1989 ....|      632|         541|        357|          35|        24|        13|       ---|         ---
1990 ....|      714|         615|        410|          36|        25|        13|        10|          15
         |         |            |           |            |          |          |          |
1991 ....|      755|         657|        462|          33|        28|        13|        10|          16
1992 ....|      739|         639|        457|          33|        28|        13|         9|          17
1993 ....|      746|         651|        469|          33|        27|        13|        10|          16
1994 ....|      774|         668|        491|          36|        25|        13|         9|          15
1995 ....|      787|         682|        504|          38|        25|        13|         9|          15
         |         |            |           |            |          |          |          |
1996 ....|      824|         716|        488|          39|        25|        13|         9|          14
1997 ....|      785|         681|        460|          43|        24|        12|         8|          13
1998 ....|      776|         673|        481|          44|        24|        11|         7|          13
1999 ....|      808|         702|        498|          44|        25|        11|         7|          13
2000 ....|      811|         699|        487|          45|        25|        11|         7|          13
2001 ....|    1,016|         928|        648|          41|        26|        11|         8|          14
_________|_________|____________|___________|____________|__________|__________|__________|____________

---Not available.
\1\Number of people taking the GED tests (one or more subtests).
\2\Number of people completing the entire GED battery of five tests.
\3\Number of people receiving high school equivalency credentials based on the GED tests.
\4\Data for 1988 and prior years are for number of test takers and may not be comparable to later years.
\5\Includes outlying areas.

NOTE: Data are for United States only and exclude outlying areas. Detail may not sum to totals due to rounding. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.

SOURCE: American Council on Education, General Educational Development Testing Service, Who took the GED? Statistical Report, various years. (This table was prepared September 2002.)


2002 Tables and Figures All Years of Tables and Figures Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest