Schools and Education
Most Erie residents (41.6 percent) have completed high school, and only 5.5 percent have less than grade nine. Residents with a Bachelor’s degree make up 11.2 percent of the population and 6.2 percent have a graduate or professional degree.
There are about ten public and ten private primary and middle schools, and ten public high schools and six private high schools in Erie. Erie is also the home to several different post-secondary institutions.
There’s the Pennsylvania State Erie-Behrend College that offers 29 undergraduate majors and 19 undergraduate minors, as well as five Associate degrees and two graduate programs. Gannon University that offers 49 Bachelor and seven Associate degrees, 12 pre-professional programs and 19 graduate degree options. Mercyhurst College offers 43 undergraduate majors.
Other post-secondary schools include the Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine, the Center for Advanced Manufacturing and Technology, the Erie County Technical School, the Northwest Pennsylvania Technical Institute, the Erie Business Center, the Great Lakes Institute of Technology, the GECAC Training Institute and the Tri-State business institute.
- Four of America’s Top 50 plastic companies are located in Erie.
- Erie is the home to the oldest lighthouse on the Great Lakes.
- The character Alice from the Brady Bunch was born in Erie.
- Erie is covered in 167,634 acres of farmland.
- Average summer temperature in Erie is 76.4°F.
- Average winter temperature is a low of 20°F and a high of 35°F.
- Erie is 19.3 square miles.
- The total area of Erie is 21.54 percent water.
- Birthplace of 2005 NFL player Bob Sanders