Nearly 2.3 million students received degrees from four-year colleges and about 557,000 earned degrees from community colleges in the 2004-5 academic year, according to a report released today by the U.S. Education Department.

The report, “Postsecondary Institutions in the United States: Fall 2005 and Degrees and Other Awards Conferred: 2004-05,” provides a first look at the latest data on college costs and degree attainment that the Education Department has collected through the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. The system, commonly known as Ipeds, compiles information from reports that colleges that receive federal funds are required to file.

According to the report, in the 2005-6 academic year the average tuition and fees charged were: $16,888 for students at private four-year colleges, $13,894 at for-profit colleges, and $2,514 at community colleges. Out-of-state students at public four-year colleges paid an average of $12,652, while in-state students paid an average of $5,206.

Meanwhile, according to the report, the overall average price of attendance for undergraduates living on a campus was the highest at for-profit colleges, at $28,250. That was about 2 percent more than the $27,754 that students at private four-year colleges were charged, on average. Out-of-state students at public four-year colleges paid an average price of $22,791, while in-state students paid an average of $15,114.

Not surprisingly, community colleges offered the lowest price of attendance over all in 2005-6: $6,200 for students living off campus.

More-current data on tuition and fees — for the 2006-7 year — appear in a database of College Board figures that The Chronicle published in November. The most-recent final statistics on earned degrees conferred — for the 2003-4 year — were published in the Almanac issue of The Chronicle, in August.