New Federal Report Offers Data on Gender Differences in High School Dropout Rates

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education includes data on school drop out rates by gender.

Some 4.1 percent of all girls enrolled in grades 10 to 12 in the United States in October 2015, dropped out of school by October of the next year. For boys, 5.4 percent of students in these grades dropped out of school in the same period.

In 2016, 5.1 percent of all women ages 16 to 24 did not have a high school diploma and were not enrolled in school. For men the figure was 7.1 percent.

This so-called status dropout rate has dropped significantly for women since the turn of the century. In 2000, 9.9 percent of all women ages 16 to 24 did not have a high school diploma and were not enrolled in school. Thus, the status dropout rate for women in 2016 was just about half the rate that existed in 2000. For men, the status dropout rate dropped from 12 percent in 2000 to 7.1 percent in 2016.

The full report, Trends in High School Dropout and Completion Rates in the United States: 2018, may be downloaded by clicking here.