Women in Canada and Japan Outpace American Women in Higher Education Completion

According to data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 42 percent of Americans ages 25 to 34 in 2008 had completed some level of higher education. This rate was higher than for similarly aged people in France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. But for people in this age group, Canada and Japan had a higher college completion rate.

When we break down the figures by gender, we see that 46 percent of American women ages 25 to 34 were college educated. This is higher than the rate for women in France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom. But the college completion rate for women of 64 percent in Canada and 59 percent in Japan is far higher than the rate in the United States.