The Surging Gender Gap in Educational Attainment Among Young Americans

Three decades ago, women and men between 24 and 35 years old were just as likely to have completed an undergraduate education, with about a quarter of each group holding bachelor’s degrees in 1995. Today, the share of young women in the United States with a college degree has skyrocketed to 47 percent, compared to 37 percent of young men, according to a new study from Pew Research Center.

Notably, the increasing gender gap between bachelor’s degree-holders in America was found across every major racial group. White women are 10 percentage points more likely than White men to hold an undergraduate degree (52 percent versus 42 percent), compared to the equal rate of 29 percent in 1995. Asian men and women were also just as likely to have received a bachelor’s degree in 1995 (42 percent), but now the share of Asian women with undergraduate degrees is 6 percentage points more than Asian men (77 percent versus 71 percent).

The largest race-gender gap was found among Black Americans. Today, roughly 38 percent of Black women have earned a college degree, compared to just 26 percent of Black men. Three decades ago, 16 percent of Black men and only 14 percent of Black women held a bachelor’s degree. There is currently a 9 percentage point gap among Hispanic women and men who hold bachelor’s degrees (31 percent versus 22 percent), a noticeable increase from the 1 percentage point gap found in 1995 (10 percent versus 9 percent).