See High School Graduation Rates By State

For four years, high school students grind away at assignments, projects and tests – all to get to graduation day.

The average state graduation rate across 49 U.S. states and Washington, D.C. (recent data was not available for Oklahoma) was 79% for the 2021-2022 academic year, up two percentage points from the year prior. Graduation rates for these states and D.C. ranged from an average of nearly 73% to 92%, according to data from each state's department of education website.

This rate represents the proportion of students who started high school in ninth grade and graduated four years later. It is an indicator of how well a school serves all of its students.

The high schools most successfully getting students to graduation day are not limited to a specific region or state. Even so, some stand out: 11 states had an average high school graduation rate of about 90%. That's up from nine states the year prior.

Virginia boasted the highest graduation rates in the country, graduating an average of 92% of students in 2022. West Virginia was slightly lower at 91%.

At the other end of the spectrum, some states had significantly lower averages. In D.C., the average high school graduation rate was nearly 73% in the 2021-2022 academic year, the lowest of any state. Other states with lower graduation rates – under 78% – include New Mexico, Arizona and Alaska.

California jumped the most of any state from the prior year, 3.4 percentage points, while Florida had the biggest decline, 2.8 percentage points.

The map below shows the average graduation rate for each state based on the 2022 graduation cohort, which is made up of students who entered ninth grade in the 2018-2019 school year. Requirements for high school completion vary per state.

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