New York Area Is a Magnet for Graduates

The New York Times reports:

These days, it seems, you need a college degree just to live in or around New York City.

Almost 5 million people over the age of 25 in the New York metropolitan area — more than one-third of the region’s population — had at least a bachelor’s degree in 2005, according to the latest data from the federal Census Bureau. In Manhattan, nearly three out of five residents were college graduates and one out of four had advanced degrees, forming one of the highest concentrations of highly educated people in any American city.

The degree-holders are rapidly displacing the dropouts, a trend that may help reduce the demand for social services and drive down crime rates. But the trend also worries some sociologists who say it is evidence that lower-income residents are being pushed out.

Between 2000 and 2005, the number of people in the metropolitan area over 25 who had not finished high school declined by 520,000, a drop of almost 20 percent. During the same period, the number of college graduates in the region rose by almost 700,000.

“These numbers are startling,” said Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College of the City University of New York. “It means the labor force in New York is becoming much more educated.”

Mr. Beveridge said the statistics also portended that the next set of census numbers, which are due in two weeks, will reveal a widening gap between rich and poor in the city. “If a big chunk of the labor force has become more educated, we can expect even more income inequality,” he said.

How ironic,because New York City runs a big welfare state.I guess the big welfare state doesn't make income levels more egalitarian.