"When controlled for educational attainment, the vocabulary of the average U.S. adult declined between the mid-1970s and the 2010s. Vocabulary declined across all levels of educational attainment (less than high school, high school or 2-year college graduate, bachelor's or graduate degree), with the largest declines among those with a bachelor's or graduate degree."
"Increasing educational attainment has apparently not improved verbal ability among Americans. Instead, as educational attainment has increased, those at each educational level are less verbally skilled even though the vocabulary skills of the whole population are unchanged."
[Source: Declines in vocabulary among American adults within levels of educational attainment, 1974–2016; h/t Emil Kirkegaard]
Maybe, the number of people who are graduate increased significantly + cultural changes [rare words become rarer today] = decreased vocabulary size
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