New data from the U.S. Census Bureau show higher education enrollment data for the fall of 2021, when the pandemic was waning and college enrollments were slowly returning to prepandemic levels.
In October 2021, there were 2,717.000 African Americans enrolled in higher education. They made up 15.7 percent of all enrollments in higher education. African Americans were 17.2 percent of all entering students at two-year colleges and 16.7 percent of all students entering four-year institutions. Blacks were 15 percent of all full-time students enrolled in higher education and 16.7 percent of all students enrolled part-time.
Blacks were 13 percent of all students entering graduate school in the fall of 2021. They were 15.8 percent of all students in their second or more years in graduate school.
There were 995,000 Black men enrolled in higher education in October 2021 and 1,772.000 Black women. Thus, Black women made up 65 percent of all African American enrollments in higher education. For all racial and ethnic groups, women make up 58 percent of the total enrollments.
There were 223,000 Black men enrolled in graduate school in October 2021. At that time there were 373,000 Black women graduate students. Therefore, Black women made up 62.6 percent of all African American enrollments in graduate school.
