Higher education costs have been on the rise for many years, and the question is whether college has become unaffordable for many. 

Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders (I) recently took to social media to comment on higher education in the United States and the world.  Here's what Sanders had to say about younger Americans who have college degrees:

"Forty years ago, some of our great public universities, as well as many state colleges, were virtually tuition-free. Today, the cost of college is unaffordable for many. In 1990, the U.S. led the world in the percentage of 25-34 year olds with college degrees. Today we are in 12th place. Things need to change. Higher education must become affordable for all."

PolitiFact looked into Sanders' statement, and reporter Joshua Gillin says that the Vermont senator's claim rates MOSTLY TRUE.  Gillin says for the most part the claim is solidly backed up with available statistics.

"This one is using statistics from industrialized nations and their post-secondary education rates here," Gillin said.  "What we're talking about here is the rate of a country's population that has a college degree, and what we found, easily, is that the latest statistics show that the United States is indeed in 12th place."

The problem with the placement of the United States against other countries in the world boils down to the way surveys have been done throughout the years.

"It's a little harder to find statistics going back to 1990," Gillin said. "We had to extrapolate numbers from the statistics that were available, and what we found is, back then, there were some differences between then and now. 

"Russia and Israel weren't part of the data set, and how it was measured was not quite the same as getting a degree. ... It was the second tier of post-secondary education, so we had to knock it down a notch for that.  Experts did tell us, though, that the gist of it that the United States was lower in ranking than it used to be is true. But it's not because the United States is doing worse. It's just that other countries are doing better."

Sanders pretty much made the grade when it came to his claim, but because of the way statistics were compiled throughout the years, there can't be a one-to-one comparison between then and now when it comes to the rankings for individual nations in the world. That lead to a PolitiFact rating of MOSTLY TRUE.

SOURCES: U.S. worldwide college degrees ranking