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> Among adult Americans, only a third have bachelors degrees

Sure, but this is very skewed by older Americans having low rates of degrees. A lot more than 33% of current American 24 year-olds have Bachelors degrees. And that more accurately reflects the expectations on teenagers than low rates of degrees among Boomers.

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For 4-year college, the enrollment number is 31% for 2020. Total enrollment including 2-year is 40%. The total number of actual graduates is probably slightly less than this.

https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cpb/college-enrol...

In the U.S., around 86% of kids graduate high school[1], around 63% of high school graduates go to 4-year colleges[2], and around 64% of them graduate within 6 years[3].

By that logic around 35% of 24-year-old Americans have bachelor degrees. More than a third, but not by much.

[1] https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/coi/high-school-g... [2] https://educationdata.org/college-enrollment-statistics [3] https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=40

You don't have to reverse engineer it from first principles; the rate is rising over time, lead by under 29s (i.e., current youth): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Educational_Attainment_in...

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