More Than 12 Million American Women Are Enrolled in Higher Education

The U.S. Department of Education recently released a report offering preliminary data on enrollments at colleges and universities in the fall of 2011. The data shows that in 2011, there were 21,554,004 students enrolled at higher education institutions in the United States. Of these, 12,345,725, or 57.3 percent, were women.

Women were 55.9 percent of all the students at state-operated colleges and universities and 57.7 percent of all students at private, nonprofit institutions. But women made up a whopping 65.4 percent, almost two thirds, of all students in private, for-profit higher education institutions.

In 2011, there were 2,931,516 students enrolled in graduate schools in the United States. Of these, 1,721,898, or 58.7 percent were women.