Women Almost Match Men in Earning Bachelor's Degrees, Census Finds

By Jill Laster

Washington

Women have nearly caught up to their male counterparts in achieving at least a bachelor's degree, according to data released on Tuesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

About 29 percent of women 25 and older had attained at least a bachelor's degree in 2009, compared with 30 percent of men. A decade earlier, the proportions were 23 percent and 28 percent, respectively.

The census data are part of an annual survey measuring national educational attainment that the agency has conducted since 1947. This year's report on the data used a sampling of 100,000 addresses gathered as part of the Current Population Survey's Annual Social and Economic Supplement.

The pattern of women's academic achievement outdoing men's, on average, goes back more than a decade, and is now expressing itself in the awarding of both undergraduate and graduate degrees. According to the newly reported data, young women have widened the gap in achieving postsecondary degrees in the past decade. In 2009, 35 percent of women ages 25 to 29 held at least a bachelor's degree, compared with 27 percent of men. A decade earlier, the numbers were much closer: 30 percent versus 27 percent.

Women ages 25 to 29 held 58 percent of advanced degrees in their age bracket in 2009, the same as in 2000. Kurt J. Bauman, chief of the Census Bureau's Education and Social Stratification Branch, said based on current graduate enrollments, the high percentage of women with graduate degrees is likely to continue for the immediate future.

A racial gap persists in the percentage of students receiving bachelor's degrees, the data showed. More than half of Asians 25 and older had at least a bachelor's degree, at 53 percent, compared with 33 percent for non-Hispanic whites, 19 percent for blacks, and 13 percent for Hispanics.

The census data also showed salaries by education level. Average earnings in 2008 were $31,283 for those whose highest level of education was a high-school diploma. Those with bachelor's degrees earned an average of $58,613, and those with advanced degrees earned an average of $83,144.