In Autumn 2024, among the students enrolled in the highest ranked university in the world, Oxford in the United Kingdom, 51 percent were female. See here for an overview of the highest-ranked universities in the world.

In 2023/24 the share of female students achieving a first class degree in the United Kingdom was 30 percent, compared with 27 percent of male students.

Students from the Chinese ethnic group had the highest entry rate into higher education in every year from 2006 to 2024.

From the early 1980s the proportion of male births in China has risen sharply with an average of 120 male births for every 100 female. These unprecedented sex ratio imbalances are now affecting the reproductive age groups, with 20 million excess men of reproductive age by 2020. Yet almost no empirical studies exist which explore this phenomenon, so the consequences of this huge surplus of excess men remains unknown. The overall objective of the study was to explore, through comparisons of urban and rural settings in three provinces, the demographic, social and psychological consequences of high sex ratios on (a) young men, (b) young women and (c) society more generally.

The specific objectives were:

• to compare key socio-demographic indicators for areas with differing sex ratios;
• to explore and understand the experiences of young men and women living in environments with different sex ratios and their perceptions, if any, of the impact of excess males on society;
• to explore the psychological and social impact of the sex ratio for partnered and unpartnered men and women;
• to test hypotheses derived from the literature, including that in high sex ratio areas men are more vulnerable to depression and aggression, women have better mental health with less depression and anxiety, and violent crime and prostitution are more common.

36.1% of white undergraduate students got a first class degree in the 2021 to 2022 academic year, compared with 17.3% of black students.

This dataset provides annual estimates of the population of Colombia from 1998 to 2018, disaggregated by age group (5-year bands), sex, and educational attainment following ISCED 2011 levels. The data were reconstructed using official census records, administrative registers, and Life Quality Surveys.

Following the IIEP-UNESCO methodology (https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000379198) for reconstructing georeferenced school-age populations (ISCED 1 to 3; http://data.uis.unesco.org/) by year and sex, these datasets were produced by WorldPop (University of Southampton) by applying the Sprague Multipliers to 30-arcsecond gridded datasets depicting the estimated spatial distribution of sex-disaggregated 5-year age groups in countries and dependent territories in Africa in 2020 (https://www.worldpop.org/geodata/summary?id=24798).

These data were produced by the WorldPop Research Group at the University of Southampton. This work was part of the GRID3 project with funding from the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) - Population Modelling for use in Routine Health Planning and Monitoring project (contract no. 43335861). Projects partners included the Kenya Unicef Regional and Country Offices, WorldPop research group at the University of Southampton and the Center for International Earth Science Information Network in the Columbia Climate School at Columbia University. Assane Gadiaga (WorldPop) led the input processing and the modelling work following the Random Forest (RF)-based dasymetric mapping approach developed by Stevens et al. (2015). Thomas Abbott supported the covariates processing work. In-country engagements were done by David Kyalo, Olena Borkovska (GRID3 Inc), Maria Muniz (Unicef). Using the 2009 and 2019 census data from the Kenya’s National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS), the US Census Bureau released the census-based total population projections, population by age and sex and digital sub-counties boundaries. Duygu Cihan helped in the preparation of these input population data. Attila N Lazar, Edith Darin and Heather Chamberlain advised on the modelling procedure. The work was overseen by Attila N Lazar and Andy J Tatem.

(NB: This dataset supersedes the earlier version at https://doi.org/10.5287/bodleian:2zN0QwKGz) This data was collected between 1 Feb - 11 March 2016 at the Department of Zoology, University of Oxford. It relates to an experiment conducted on fruit flies. Data includes mating data (mating success, mating latency, and mating duration), remating data (remating occurrence, latency, and duration) and offspring data (number of offspring and paternity share of offspring).

This is a ZIP archive file (.zip) containing both portable network graphics (.png) and comma-separated values (.csv) files: > The png files contain the annotated sketches that participants generated during the ideation session. This file type allows the non-digital data to be saved in a digital document format. The ideas from each group are stored into different folders, whose naming corresponds to the experimental conditions reported in the publication (FLUENCY RESULTS IN DESIGN FIXATION EXPERIMENTS: AN ADDITIONAL EXPLANATION). > The csv file contains the evaluation for all ideas generated by all participants in the experiment. This file type allows data to be saved in a table structured format. In the table, the column headings are self-explanatory, provided you also have the corresponding publication given above as a reference. The data was collected in January 2015 from 55 undergraduate students in engineering at the University of Cambridge, UK. Participation in the experiment was part of the students’ education, and was aimed at collecting data that could later be used to introduce them to the concept of design fixation. No demographic data was collected from the participants, but as first year undergraduate students they were broadly similar in age and design experience, drawn from a cohort with a male-female ratio of 3:1. No consent form was required for this experiment

Gridded age and sex count datasets produced in the framework of the Global Project - Funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (OPP1134076)

This is a comma-separated values file type (.csv) containing the evaluation for all ideas generated by all participants in the experiment. This file type allows data to be saved in a table structured format. In the table, the column headings are self-explanatory, provided you also have the corresponding publication (To copy or not to copy: the influence of instructions in design inspiration and fixation experiments) as a reference. The data was collected in January 2015 from 168 undergraduate students in engineering at the University of Cambridge, UK. Participation in the experiment was part of the students’ education, and was aimed at collecting data that could later be used to introduce them to the concept of design fixation. No demographic data was collected from the participants, but as first year undergraduate students they were broadly similar in age and design experience, drawn from a cohort with a male-female ratio of 3:1. No consent form was required for this experiment.

Data from an experimental treatment of carotenoids to hihi (Notiomystis cincta) mothers, conducted on Tiritiri Matangi Island, Auckland, New Zealand in 2004 and 2005. Spreadsheet 1 presents Laying rank and sex of eggs laid. Spreadsheet 2 contains clutch sex ratios and information about maternal age.

The relationship between sport, education and social class in Britain is extremely complex and variable across different sports and genders. This statistic presents the share of different educational structures attended by British professional athletes across a range of sporting disciplines. Men's cricket had the highest levels of privately educated professional athletes of the sports included within this statistic, with 43 percent of the English men's cricket team having received a private education. Female cricketers had the lowest rate of comprehensive attendance, with 35 percent having attended private schools. The educational backgrounds of British female rugby union internationals differ to those of the men. Where 37 percent of men's British rugby union internationals having attended private schools, with only 47 percent having attended a state comprehensive. The women's British rugby union internationals educational background was more in line with football but still double the national average, with 82 percent having attended comprehensive schools and 13 percent having received private education.
Football Men’s football has long been a game where professional players leave the education system at an early age, with the pathways to elite level participation largely through the club and league structures. Consequently male football professionals have the lowest rates of privately educated participants within this statistic. The differences between male and female football professionals provides an insight into the differing opportunities for financial reward. Although the school backgrounds were comparable between male and female football professionals, reflecting similar social groups playing the game at grassroots level. However, high university attendance amongst female football professionals is likely due to the lower levels of financial compensation in women’s sport. The England team at the 2019 Women’s Football World Cup is the first fully professional team the country has ever had, and the Scottish team still features many part-time players. Private Education Many of the sports within this statistic, particularly those with a history of amateur participation, include school or university competition as a step on the ladder to success. Sports which require expensive equipment or special facilities lead to a more socially exclusive participant base. Many private schools have sufficient funding to invest heavily in high quality indoor and outdoor facilities for cricket, rugby, hockey, rowing, cycling, sailing and equestrianism. Within these sports the pathway to elite level participation is heavily associated with school or university level participation Olympics The educational backgrounds of British Olympic medalists shown within this statistic is illustrates a complex relationship between the relationship between sport, education and social class in Britain. Within the international sporting tournaments, such as the Olympic Games, Team GB has historically excelled at ‘sitting down sports’, including rowing, cycling, sailing and equestrianism. These all involve specialized and frequently expensive equipment and facilities, and are sports historically associated with higher social classes. Funding has historically been targeted towards such sports, on the basis that they offer the best chance of medals. Whilst this has been a largely successful tactic with regards to international sporting accolades, it is at the expense of funding more widely played and accessible sports, potentially creating additional barriers to participation.