New Data Shows a Drop in Enrollments of Women 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 2012. The data shows that in 2012, there were 21,147,055 students enrolled at degree-granting institutions in the United States. Of these, 12,063,631, or 57 percent were women.

A year earlier there were 12,345,725 women enrolled in degree-granting institutions of higher education. Thus, from the fall of 2011 to the fall of 2012, there were 282,094 fewer women enrolled in higher education. This is a drop of 2.3 percent.

In 2012 women were 55.7 percent of all the students at state-operated colleges and universities, down from 55.9 percent a year earlier. In 2012, 57.5 percent of all students at private, nonprofit institutions were women. This was down from 55.7 percent in 2011. In 2012 women made up a whopping 65.2 percent, almost two thirds, of all students in private, for-profit higher education institutions.

In 2012, there were 2,910,715 students enrolled in graduate schools in the United States. Of these, 1,705,458, or 58.6 percent were women. Graduate enrollments of women were down slightly from 2011.