Back to School by the Numbers

School starts Tuesday for Fairfax students. Patch looked at U.S. Census Bureau data to provide a few back to school facts:

• American families spent $7.7 billion at clothing stores in August 2011. The only months with higher sales were November and December.

• Sales at bookstores in August 2011 totaled $2.4 billion.

• As of October 2010, there were 79 million children and adults enrolled in school — from nursery school through college — throughout the United States.

• As of October 2010, 72 percent of children ages 3-6 years old who are in kindergarten attend all day.

• Twenty seven percent of students age 12-17 were enrolled in a gifted/talented class in 2009.

• The number of students age 5-17 who speak a language other than English at home was 11.8 million in 2010. Additionally, 8.5 percent of those children spoke Spanish at home.

• Sixteen percent of all college students were 35 and older in October 2010.

• Forty-one percent of 18-24 year olds in the US were enrolled in college in 2010.

• Fifty-six percent of all college students in 2010 were women.

• The median earnings of a full-time employee with an advanced degree in 2009 was $74,000 a year. Workers with a bachelor’s degree had median earnings of $56,000, while those with a high school diploma had median earnings of $33,000. Those with less than a high school diploma had median earnings of $25,000.