An extremely high percentage of the "career" regional pilots I know do not have a 4 year degree. And most of them don't really WANT to be career regional pilots...

Also you have to be very careful of statistical surveys in this business...things change too fast. Many of the crusty old airline captains who have a GED with a 1.7 GPA got their major airline job by working for a small company that got bought by a larger company...for example DAL would not have street hired many of the old-time local boys who came with the Western airlines acquisition.

In todays world the BS/BA is required for entry into the professional white-collar world in any capacity, which includes airline pilots, even though we obviously have some blue collar aspects to our trade.

The best opportunity for non-degreed people today is construction and related fields, but you have to be self-employed to make real money.

There are always exceptions, but if your uncle is not the certificate chief pilot at a major airline you had probably better get the degree...