Regional Indicator 7: Secondary School Graduates

	Why It's Important Levels of education tend to correlate strongly with future personal prosperity and well-being. With the "knowledge" content of most jobs steadily increasing, high school graduation is deemed essential as a base qualification for other "higher learning."

Regional Indicator Seven represents the number of Grade 12 students who have graduated in the school year beginning in the year noted, including those graduating as a result of August provincial exams. It is expressed as a percent of the 18 year old population on July 1st of that year. Both public and independent schools are included.

Vancouver had a graduation rate of 79.5 percent in 2008. This was higher than the rates in Abbotsford (77.5 percent), Kelowna (77.1 percent), Regional BC (70.6 percent), and Victoria (67.8 percent).

The public and independent secondary school graduation rate in BC was essentially the same in 2008 (75.4) as in 2000 (75.7) but is significantly higher than in 1992 (66.8).

Vancouver's average annual growth rate for the graduation rate was 1.1 percent between 1999 and 2008. The equivalent rates for the other areas considered are: Victoria (0.9 percent), Abbotsford (1.8 percent), Kelowna (0.8 percent), and Regional BC (-0.7 percent).