The Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in the United States

New data from the U.S. Census Bureau offers a look at gender differences in educational attainment. The study found that 89.6 percent of American women over the age of 25 had graduated from high school. This is just slightly higher than the rate for men over the age of 25. Their high school graduation rate is 88.5 percent.

Some 61.6 percent of adult women have at least some college experience, compared to 58.8 percent of adult men. More than one third, 33.7 percent, of adult women had obtained at least a bachelor’s degree. For adult men in 2016, 33.2 percent had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. For both men and women, 12.6 percent of all adult Americans held an advanced degree. More men than women hold professional degrees and doctoral degrees, but women hold a large lead in master’s degrees.

Due to the considerable advantage of women over men in current college enrollments and current degree attainments, it can be expected that the gender gap in educational attainment will expand significantly in the years ahead.

The data tables from Educational Attainment in the United States: 2016, may be downloaded here.