New data from the U.S. Census Bureau gives a detailed look at school enrollment in the United States. The data shows that 23.4 of the entire U.S. population over the age of 3 was enrolled in school in 2024. That year, school enrollment included 8.5 million preschool or kindergarten students, 32 million students in first through eighth grades, 17 million high schoolers, and 17 million undergraduate and graduate students.
In 2024, women made up a larger percentage of college and graduate students than was the case at all other lower grades of education. Here are the numbers:
- There were 4,033,000 girls enrolled in preschool or kindergarten programs. They made up 47.4 percent of all students at this level of education.
- Girls were 48.8 percent of the more than 32 million students in grades 1 to 8.
- There were 8,452,000 girls enrolled in high school in 2024. They made up 49.4 percent of all high school students.
- In higher education, women made up 57.8 percent of all students, up from 55.4 percent in 2021.
In 2011, there were more than 13,350,000 women enrolled in higher education. In 2019, before the pandemic, there were 12,040,00 women enrolled in higher education. Two years later, in 2021, 11,850,000 women students were enrolled at colleges and universities. In 2024, there were 10,050,000 women enrolled in higher education. The number of women enrolled in higher education has steadily declined. Yet, women as a percentage of total enrollments has steadily increased.