Top 10 US States by Average 10-Year Graduate Earnings

PlainCollege ranks all 50 US states plus DC by the average 10-year post-enrollment earnings of their college graduates, calculated live from our full outcomes dataset.

Research period: 2026-05-16

Compiled by PlainCollege Editorial , College Outcomes Editorial Team · May 16, 2026

Research question

Across 50 US states and DC, which states report the highest average 10-year post-enrollment graduate earnings, and how does state-level earnings relate to state-level average net price of attendance?

Methodology

This ranking is calculated live from PlainCollege's current states data, sourced from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard School-Level Outcomes Dataset. No figures are hardcoded – every number reflects our most recent import of the source data and updates automatically whenever we refresh it.

The U.S. Department of Education publishes the College Scorecard School-Level Outcomes Dataset on its own release schedule. We import each new release as soon as it's available and replace our copy of the data in full, so a newer government release always supersedes the previous one – readers never see a mix of old and new figures.

Records with missing or suppressed values for the ranked metric are excluded from this ranking rather than shown as zero, since the U.S. Department of Education sometimes withholds a figure for privacy, small-sample, or quality-control reasons. We do not adjust, smooth, or estimate values the source didn't publish; if a later government release revises a figure, the revised value appears here automatically on our next import.

PlainCollege's editorial team reviews each ranking before publication. If you believe a figure attributed to a specific entity is inaccurate, you can request a correction through the contact page – we'll check it against the original government release and correct it if warranted.

Every number on this page traces back to its original U.S. Department of Education source. See the methodology page for the complete source list, data vintage, and how we process government datasets.

Massachusetts

$59,871
Rhode Island

$56,328
Connecticut

$56,243
District of Columbia

$53,915
New Hampshire

$53,440
New York

$52,246
Vermont

$50,930
Pennsylvania

$50,612
Washington

$50,255
Maine

$48,801

What this shows States that lead on average earnings typically host a concentration of elite research universities and specialty schools - the state figure says little about any one college within it.

The ranked top 10

Every row below reflects PlainCollege's current data. This page updates automatically whenever we refresh our dataset.

#	State	Schools reporting	Avg 10-yr earnings	Avg net price
1	Massachusetts	106	$59,871	$24,099
2	Rhode Island	19	$56,328	$28,684
3	Connecticut	41	$56,243	$26,842
4	District of Columbia	17	$53,915	$25,812
5	New Hampshire	24	$53,440	$20,332
6	New York	299	$52,246	$20,812
7	Vermont	10	$50,930	$27,584
8	Pennsylvania	270	$50,612	$21,184
9	Washington	87	$50,255	$17,056
10	Maine	32	$48,801	$18,728

Source: U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard School-Level Outcomes Dataset. Values update automatically whenever PlainCollege refreshes its dataset. U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard School-Level Outcomes Dataset. Values update automatically whenever PlainCollege refreshes its dataset.

Findings

Top entity in the ranking

The top-ranked record in this dataset is Massachusetts, with a value of $59,871 on the Avg 10-yr earnings column. The full top-10 set is rendered in the table above. Every value comes from PlainCollege's current dataset; no number is hardcoded into this page. When the source agency publishes a revision, the ranking and the prose around it update automatically.

Distribution shape

The gap between the top-ranked record ($59,871) and the 10th-ranked record ($48,801) characterizes how concentrated the top of the distribution is. Where the top value is many multiples of the median value of the visible set, the population is highly concentrated, a small number of entities accumulate the bulk of the measured quantity. Where the top and bottom of the visible set are close together, the distribution is relatively flat across the top end. The full distribution beyond this top-10 cut is summarized in the aggregate context section below and explored in the linked entity profiles.

Aggregate context

Across the full population behind this ranking, here are the summary statistics: how many records exist in total, the sum of the ranking metric across all qualifying records, and the mean per-record value. The methodology page documents the exact filter applied (records with null or zero values on the ranking metric are excluded). This aggregate row is computed from the same dataset that powers the ranking above.

Source provenance

The records in this ranking originate from the U.S. Department of Education's College Scorecard School-Level Outcomes Dataset. PlainCollege imports each new release from the agency in full, so every number here reflects our most recent import. See the methodology page for the source URL, data vintage, and how we process this dataset.

Why this ranking matters

Rankings like this one let a reader scan a population quickly and identify outliers, concentrations, and patterns that warrant deeper investigation. The detail pages linked from each entity in the table above give the full per-entity context: time-series history where available, related metrics from adjacent tables, and links onward to the underlying source records. The methodology page explains how an entity earns inclusion in the dataset and how the ranking column is computed at the source.

What this analysis cannot tell us

State-level averages aggregate institutions ranging from research universities to community colleges, masking large within-state variation. Median earnings reflect graduates who received federal financial aid and were employed and not enrolled in further education ten years after starting college, students who pursue medical, law, or doctoral degrees are largely excluded. State assignment reflects the location of the institution attended, not the state where graduates live and work after graduation; high-mobility states like the District of Columbia and Massachusetts attract graduates trained elsewhere, inflating their apparent post-graduation earnings. Average net price is reported separately by school and can differ substantially by family income bracket. The 10-year horizon means that for the latest available vintage, earnings reflect students who started college over a decade prior, current labor-market conditions affect the youngest cohorts in the dataset but the 10-year measure smooths over short-term fluctuations.

Utah

$76
South Dakota

$71
Florida

$70
Idaho

$69
Nevada

$68
Rhode Island

$68
Washington

$68
Connecticut

$67
Ohio

$66
Colorado

$66

What this shows The states leading on earnings are not always the same states leading on completion rate - a strong labor market and strong graduation support are separate strengths.

Sources

U.S. Department of Education, College Scorecard - https://collegescorecard.ed.gov/data/
U.S. Department of Education, IPEDS - https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/
U.S. Census Bureau, Geographic Reference Files - https://www.census.gov/