The U.S. Census Bureau has released new data on the educational attainment of the nation’s adult population.
In 2024, there were 8,675,000 Black Americans over the age of 25 in the United States who had earned at least a bachelors degree. Some 3,506,000 of these individuals were men (40.4 percent) and 5,170,00 were women (59.6 percent). Combined, Black men and women who hold a bachelor’s degree represent about 29.6 percent of the country’s overall Black adult population. In comparison, there were 68,437,000 White Americans over the age of 25 who had earned a bachelor’s degree as of 2024, equating to 38.6 percent of the country’s overall White adult population.
About 2,622,000 Black adults over age 25 held a master’s degree as their highest level of educational attainment in 2024 – nearly 9 percent of the overall Black adult population. Black women represent a significantly larger portion of this group (65 percent). Some 19,560,000 White adults over 25 years old held a master’s degree as of 2024, which is about 11 percent of the overall White adult population.
Some 214,000 Black adults age 25 and older held a professional degree as their highest level of education, while 461,000 Black adults held a doctoral degree, equating to 0.7 percent and 1.6 percent of the total population of Black Americans over age 25. Again, Black women are more likely than Black men to hold these advanced degrees, representing 56.5 percent of Black adults with a professional degree and 60.3 percent of Black adults with a doctorate. Among White adults, 1.5 percent hold professional degrees and 2.1 percent hold doctorates.
