A good sign that America is refreshing its intellectual-base and insuring a progressive future is that in 2007, a larger percentage of foreign-born than native-born residents had a master’s degree or higher, according to a new report from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Nationally, 11 percent of foreign-born — people from another country now living in the United States — and 10 percent of U.S.-born residents had an advanced degree.

In the West, according to the report, the percentage of foreign-born who had completed at least a bachelor’s degree or higher was less than the percentage of the native-born (24 percent compared with 31 percent).

Among the foreign-born, those living in the Northeast had the highest percentage of bachelor’s degrees or more (32 percent), which was the same as their native-born counterparts.

The foreign-born in the South (26 percent) and Midwest (31 percent) were more likely than native-born residents to have at least a college degree (25 percent and 26 percent, respectively).

Across all regions, a smaller percentage of foreign-born than native-born adults had completed at least a high school education.

Other highlights from the report include:
— 84 percent of adults 25 and older had completed high school, while 27 percent had obtained at least a bachelor’s degree in 2007.

— A larger proportion of women (85 percent) than men (84 percent) had completed high school, but a larger proportion of men had earned a bachelor’s degree (28 percent compared with 27 percent).

— The percentage of high school graduates was highest in the Midwest (87 percent), and the percentage of college graduates was highest in the Northeast (32 percent).

— Men earned more than women at each level of educational attainment. The percentage of female-to-male earnings among year-round, full-time workers 25 and older was 77 percent.

— Workers with a bachelor’s degree on average earned about $20,000 more a year ($46,805) than workers with a high school diploma ($26,894). Compared with non-Hispanic whites and Asians, black and Hispanic workers earned less at all attainment levels.