By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

About 14.1 percent of Chilton County’s adults 25 and older have obtained a four-year college degree, placing it in the middle of the pack among all Alabama counties, according to data from the United States Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service.

The county’s 14.1 percent four-year degree obtainment places it 36^th among Alabama’s 67 counties.

Chilton County’s college degree obtainment percentage is up significantly from the county’s past. In 1970, only 3 percent of the county’s residents had a college degree, and the number went up to 6.5 percent in 1980, 7.5 percent in 1990 and 9.9 percent in 2000.

Chilton county trails Alabama’s overall average of college degree attainment, which was 23.5 percent from 2011-2015. The District of Columbia has the nation’s highest percentage of college degree obtainment at 54.4 percent from 2011-2015, followed by Massachusetts at 40.5 percent and Colorado at 38.1 percent. Georgia had the highest college degree obtainment rate in the Southeast, at 28.8 percent.

Other counties to best the state average from 2011-2015 were Shelby County at 40.8 percent, Madison County at 39.4 percent, Lee County at 34 percent, Montgomery County at 31.1. percent, Jefferson County at 30.8 percent, Baldwin County at 29 percent, Tuscaloosa County at 28.5 percent and Coffee County at 23.9 percent.

Chilton County’s percentage of adults who have obtained a high school diploma only is 39.2, while 25.1 percent of Chilton County adults have attended some college or obtained an associate’s degree only.

All of the numbers are based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey, and can be viewed at Data.ers.usda.gov/reports.aspx?ID=17829.