High School Graduation estimates the percentage of incoming ninth graders who graduate within four years and are considered regular graduates. The National Center for Education Statistics collects enrollment and completion data and estimates the graduation rate for each state. The rate is the number of graduates divided by the estimated count of freshmen four years earlier. This estimated count of freshmen is the sum of the number of 8^th graders five years earlier, the number of 9^th graders four years earlier and the number of 10^th graders three years earlier divided by three. Enrollment counts also include a proportional distribution of students not enrolled in a specific grade. 

 

Education is a vital contributor to health as people must be able to learn about, create and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Education can also help facilitate more effective health care visits as patients must be able to understand and participate in their care for optimal results[1]. The connection between education and health has been well documented and spans almost all health conditions[2]. Educational attainment is also a strong predictor of overall adult health and life expectancy[3]. Education is strongly tied to higher earnings, which is associated with lower rates of uninsurance allowing for greater access to quality health care. The breadth of health determining factors which education affects is so large that investments in education have the potential to improve health and save more lives than medical advances[4]. Each additional year of education is associated with an increase in many health promoting behaviors and policies aimed at increasing education levels could have tremendous impacts on health[5]. Increasing educational attainment in a population has been shown to improve the health status of the population[6].

Data are not adjusted for the presence or quality of basic health and consumer health education in the curriculum, for continuing education programs nor for other non-traditional learning programs. Also, individual states are increasingly altering graduation requirements, which may affect their reported number of regular graduates, their graduation rate and the comparability of these rates across time.