Research & Studies

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. White men were nearly twice as likely as Black men to hold an advanced degree.

In 2021, nearly 54 percent of the White population over the age of 15 was married compared to 31.2 percent of the Black population. Only 27.5 percent of the White population had never been married compared to half of the Black population.

New research by psychologists at the University of California, Los Angeles shows that vaccine hesitancy and mistrust of medical professionals among Black Americans may hinge more on their current unsatisfactory healthcare experiences than on their knowledge of past wrongs.

Only 19.4 percent of all African Americans who earned doctorates in 2021 had no education-related debt when they earned their terminal degree. For Whites, 51.7 percent had no education-related debt. The median education debt for Whites was $45,000. African Americans who earned doctorates in 2021, had an average student debt of $110,000.

New data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that nearly 68 percent of all White students entering four-year colleges seeking a bachelor's degree in 2015 had graduated within six years. But only 45.7 percent of Black students had earned a bachelor's degree within six years. The racial gap was even larger at price, not-for-profit colleges and universities.

In a new study of medical school students, researchers at Yale University found that there were only slight differences between Whites and members of underrepresented groups in research experience. But Black medical school students had 15 percent fewer publications than their White peers.

The results showed that only 19 percent of African American test takers met the college and career readiness benchmark for both reading and mathematics, the lowest level of any racial or ethnic group. Some 53 percent of Whites met the readiness benchmarks in both reading and mathematics. Some 54 percent of all Black test takers did not meet the minimum benchmark in either reading or mathematics. For Whites, the figure was 21 percent.

Overall, they found that college-educated women across racial and ethnic groups have fewer children than those who did not graduate college. The difference in fertility between college-educated Black and White women is driven mainly by the smaller proportion of Black mothers giving birth to a second child, the study found.

For the fifth year in a row, the average score for African American students dropped. The most striking statistic is that only 5 percent of all Black test takers were rated ready for college-level courses in all four areas of English, mathematics, science, and reading. Whites were nearly six times as likely as Blacks to be prepared for college-level work in all four areas.

A new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center finds that Black enrollments are down by 1.6 percent this fall compared to a year ago. White enrollments have dropped by 3.6 percent. Since 2020, Black enrollments have declined by 6.9 percent compared to 9.6 percent for Whites.

The study, led by scholars at the Yale School of Medicine, found that the least likely to be placed in graduate medical education residency programs were Black or African American and Hispanic male students. Black female students and Hispanic female students also had much higher rates of not placing compared to White students.

Using a supercomputer, researchers analyzed 2.9 million vaccination rollout strategies to determine what would have produced the lowest rates of infection and death. They found that prioritizing vaccine rollouts to people of color, particularly older African Americans may have been the best strategy.