The Gender Gap in Educational Attainment in the United States

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau offers a look at gender differences in educational attainment. The study found that 88.8 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 88.0 percent.

Some 60.1 percent of adult women had at least some college experience, compared to 57.6 percent of adult men. Nearly one third, 32.7 percent, of adult women had obtained a bachelor’s degree. For adult men in 2015, 32.2 percent had earned a bachelor’s degree. For both men and women, 12 percent of all adult Americans held an advance degree.

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 full report, Educational Attainment in the United States: 2015, may be downloaded by clicking here.