The Large Racial Gap in Educational Attainment Rates, Particularly for Men

Revised data from the U.S. Census Bureau for 2021 shows large racial gaps in educational attainment. In 2021, 28.7 percent of African Americans over the age of 25 had obtained at least a bachelor’s degree. For Whites, the figure was 41.9 percent.

Some 10.9 percent of Black adults held a graduate or professional degree compared to 15.9 percent of Whites.

On the other extreme, nearly one in 10 African American adults had not graduated from high school. Only 4.9 percent of White adults did not have a high school diploma.

When we break the figures down by gender, we see a major advantage for Black women. In 2021, 30.8 percent of Black women had obtained at least a bachelor’s degree and 12.7 percent had earned an advanced degree. For African American men, 24.9 percent had a least a bachelor’s degree and 8.8 percent had an advanced degree. White men were nearly twice as likely as Black men to hold an advanced degree.

Black women had just a slight advantage over Black men in high school completion rates.

Related Articles

Leave a Reply

Get the JBHE Weekly Bulletin

Receive our weekly email newsletter delivered to your inbox

Latest News

In Memoriam: Maxine Mimms, 1928-2024

Dr. Mimms served as a faculty member at Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington for two decades, including 10 years as the founding director of the college's Tacoma campus.

Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars

The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education regularly publishes a list of new books that may be of interest to our readers. The books included are on a wide variety of subjects and present many different points of view.

Nonwhite Patients Are Significantly More Likely to Have Preventative Care Insurance Claims Denied

Scholars from the University of Toronto have found non-White patients are nearly twice as likely as White patients to have an insurance claim denied. On average, they also pay more out-of-pocket costs when their claims are denied.

Leslie Rodriguez-McClellon Named Seventeenth President of Arkansas Baptist College

Prior to her new role, Dr. Rodriguez-McClellon was the vice president of community relations and governmental affairs at Saint Augustine's University in Raleigh. She has a robust background in higher education, including service as the first African American president of Rochester Community and Technical College in Minnesota.

Featured Jobs