An analysis including multiple studies show that education is a powerful path not just to income, but health, too.
Thanks to rising costs and painful student debt, many Americans find themselves for the first time questioning whether a college degree is worth the investment. In fact, a September 2025 Gallup Poll captured that growing sentiment of weariness: only 35% of Americans now say college is “very important”—down sharply from 59% in 2019.
Yet according to a 2026 Washington Post analysis, there are still tangible financial reasons to continue your schooling. For one, young men with a college degree earn 70% more than those without one, the outlet reports. In the 1970s, this pay discrepancy was closer to 20%—meaning the return on investment has risen substantially.
Now, scientists say there’s another surprising reason you might want to stick with your studies. Drawing on data from 70 locations in 59 countries, including both high-income nations such as the United States and the United Kingdom and middle-income countries such as China and Brazil, the study found a clear connection between education and survival. Each additional year of full-time schooling was associated with a roughly 2% reduction in an adult’s risk of dying.
This could be taken to mean that the 12 years it takes to complete high school can lower mortality risk by roughly 25%, compared to having no formal education. The researchers note that a lifestyle eating well and exercising yield similar results.
Also insightful, the analysis, published in the peer-reviewed journal The Lancet Public Health, suggested that progressing through primary school, high school, and higher education delivers a powerful, cumulative health advantage. People who completed all three levels had a 35% lower risk of death than those who never attended school at all—a benefit comparable in size to maintaining a healthy diet over a lifetime.
Meanwhile, The Guardian reported that the effects of never having attended school were on par with consuming five or more alcoholic drinks every day or smoking 10 cigarettes each day for a decade. It may serve as an argument for equitable access to education, says the research team: “Efforts to mitigate barriers to good health facing people with lower levels of education might result in better health and longer lives,” they write.
The study notes that the link between education and longevity was “well established” prior to the study, they were still surprised by the findings: “Education is important in its own right, not just for its benefits to health, but now being able to quantify the magnitude of this benefit is a significant development,” Dr. Terje Andreas Eikemo, a professor of sociology and the study’s co-author, told the outlet.
The team notes that education likely improves health by providing “social and psychosocial, economic, and cognitive benefits.” There is also a clear connection between access to education and access to healthcare—those deprived of one may also be deprived of the other.
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