In an impressive increase from years past, 39 percent of women in the United States had completed four years or more of college in 2022. This figure is up from 3.8 percent of women in 1940. A significant increase can also be seen in males, with 36.2 percent of the U.S. male population having completed four years or more of college in 2022, up from 5.5 percent in 1940.

4- and 2-year colleges

In the United States, college students are able to choose between attending a 2-year postsecondary program and a 4-year postsecondary program. Generally, attending a 2-year program results in an Associate’s Degree, and 4-year programs result in a Bachelor’s Degree.

Many 2-year programs are designed so that attendees can transfer to a college or university offering a 4-year program upon completing their Associate’s. Completion of a 4-year program is the generally accepted standard for entry-level positions when looking for a job.

Earnings after college

Factors such as gender, degree achieved, and the level of postsecondary education can have an impact on employment and earnings later in life. Some Bachelor’s degrees continue to attract more male students than female, particularly in STEM fields, while liberal arts degrees such as education, languages and literatures, and communication tend to see higher female attendance.

All of these factors have an impact on earnings after college, and despite nearly the same rate of attendance within the American population between males and females, men with a Bachelor’s Degree continue to have higher weekly earnings on average than their female counterparts.

In all 25 OECD countries listed here, completion rates from bachelor's programs were higher among women than among men. The share of women who completed their bachelor's degree within the theoretical time frame varied from ** percent in Colombia to ** percent in the United Kingdom. Among men, students in the United Kingdom had the highest completion rates.

In the academic year of 2020/21, about 860,760 male and 1.2 million female students earned a Bachelor's degree in the United States. By the academic year of 2031/32, the number of male Bachelor's degree recipients is expected to reach 975,020.

Bachelor’s degrees in the United States

American students typically earn a Bachelor’s degree for an undergraduate course of study and it is normally completed in four years. Depending on the major, students receive a Bachelor of Arts, Bachelor of Science, Bachelor of Business Administration, Bachelor of Fine Arts, or another type of certificate.

In 2021, about 1.17 million white students earned a Bachelor's degree, followed by 324,848 Hispanic students.

Bachelor's degrees and earnings

When looking at the mean income of Bachelor’s degree holders in 2021, there are marked differences between the female and male Bachelor’s degree holders. Men with a Bachelor’s degree earned about 107,315 U.S. dollars per year, compared to women, who earned 77,099 U.S. dollars per year. In addition, salaries tended to increase the more educated a person was.

On-time and extended-time graduation rates by gender, collected very year by the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada (CMEC) for the true cohort high school graduation rate data collection.

The variable examined is graduation status after four years of high school. Early and summer graduates are considered graduates after four years. The "other" rate includes students who dropped out of high school, enrolled in a GED program, transferred to post-secondary education, or have unknown status. Special education students in school after four years but subsequently graduated are not included in the "still enrolled" rate due to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) restrictions. The subgroups reported are gender, race/ethnicity, English language learners, special education students, and students eligible for free or reduced-price meals (FRPM). The data replace the rate of students enrolled in 12th grade in September who graduated the following June. Connecticut State Department of Education (SDE) collects data longitudinally by four-year cohorts. SDE reports and CTdata.org carries graduation rates of four-year cohorts annually.

The proportion of male and female postsecondary graduates, by Classification of Instructional Programs, Primary groupings (CIP_PG), International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) and age group.

This measure presents the high school 4-Year graduation rate for female students in Iowa for the most current graduating class available.

This statistic shows the total number of students who graduated from postsecondary institutions in Canada from 2000 to 2020, distinguished by gender. In 2020, about 334,000 women received a certificate, diploma, or degree from a postsecondary institution in Canada.

In the academic year 2024, the enrollment rate in universities and junior colleges reached around **** percent for male students and **** percent for female students in Japan. The share of young women attending higher education institutions increased more than ******* in the past 60 years. The overall direct enrollment rate after high school graduation was ** percent.

This statistic shows the total number of students who graduated from postsecondary institutions in Canada in 2021, distinguished by gender and field of study. In 2021, a total of 27,690 women graduated with a degree in humanities in Canada.

The number of postsecondary graduates, by Classification of Instructional Programs, Primary groupings (CIP_PG), International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), age group and gender.

In 2022, about 37.7 percent of the U.S. population who were aged 25 and above had graduated from college or another higher education institution, a slight decline from 37.9 the previous year. However, this is a significant increase from 1960, when only 7.7 percent of the U.S. population had graduated from college. Demographics Educational attainment varies by gender, location, race, and age throughout the United States. Asian-American and Pacific Islanders had the highest level of education, on average, while Massachusetts and the District of Colombia are areas home to the highest rates of residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher. However, education levels are correlated with wealth. While public education is free up until the 12th grade, the cost of university is out of reach for many Americans, making social mobility increasingly difficult. Earnings White Americans with a professional degree earned the most money on average, compared to other educational levels and races. However, regardless of educational attainment, males typically earned far more on average compared to females. Despite the decreasing wage gap over the years in the country, it remains an issue to this day. Not only is there a large wage gap between males and females, but there is also a large income gap linked to race as well.

A large literature shows that families with more resources are able to provide better learning environments and make more ambitious educational choices for their children. At the end of compulsory education, the result is a social-origin gap in school-track attendance and learning outcomes. Our paper analyses whether this gap further widens thereafter for children with comparable school achievement, and whether the gap varies by gender and migrant status. We examine graduation rates from higher education by combining a cohort study from Switzerland with a reweighting method to match students on their school track, grades, reading literacy and place of residence at the end of compulsory school. The one observed feature that sets them apart is their parents’ socio-economic status. When analysing their graduation rates 14 years later at the age of 30, we find a large social-origin gap. The rate of university completion at age 30 is 20 percentage points higher among students from the highest socio-economic status quartile than among students from the lowest quartile, even though their school abilities were comparable at age 16. This gap appears to be somewhat smaller among women than men, and among natives than migrants, but differences are not statistically significant. For men and women, migrants and natives alike, abundant parental resources strongly increase the likelihood of university graduation in Switzerland.

We exploit a unique data set, combining rich experimental data with high-quality administrative data, to study dropout from the college track in Norway, and why boys are more likely to drop out. The paper provides three main findings. First, we show that family background and personal characteristics contribute to explain dropout. Second, we show that the gender difference in dropout rates appears both when the adolescents select into the college track and after they have started. Third, we show that different processes guide the choices of the boys and the girls of whether to drop out from the college track.

Number of persons aged 15 and over in private households with or without a high school diploma or equivalency certificate, and high school completion rate (measured using the variable Secondary (high) school diploma or equivalency certificate) by sex, age group and selected demographic characteristics, Canada, provinces and territories.

Statistics on postsecondary graduates, including the number of graduates, the percentage of female graduates and age at graduation, are presented by the province of study and the level of study. Estimates are available at five-year intervals.

The number of graduates by institution type, program type, credential type, gender and Classification of Instructional Programs, Primary groupings (CIP_PG).

This dataset tracks annual graduation rate from 2017 to 2022 for Young Women's College Prep Academy vs. Texas and Houston Independent School District

This dataset provides information on the number of graduates from private colleges and universities in Qatar. The data is categorized by educational institution, nationality, gender, and year. It presents the number of graduates for each combination of these attributes, offering valuable insight into trends in graduation across different groups. The dataset can be used to analyze the graduation patterns of Qatari and non-Qatari students, as well as the gender distribution within different educational institutions.

This dataset presents the 150% graduation rates for undergraduate student cohorts at Qatar University from Fall 2012 to Fall 2016. The "150% graduation rate" refers to the percentage of students who graduate within 150% of the standard program duration (e.g., 6 years for a 4-year program). The data is disaggregated by gender (Female and Male), along with an overall rate for each cohort.This dataset supports institutional performance evaluation, gender-based outcome analysis, and long-term planning for higher education policies. It enables users to assess trends in graduation outcomes and address equity gaps in student success.