39.0% to 36.2%: Women Beat Men in Earning a Bachelor’s Degree or Higher

(CNSNews.com) – American women 25 and older in 2022 were more likely than American men in that age group to have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to data released today by the U.S. Census Bureau.

That was the ninth straight year that American women have beaten American men in this measurement of educational attainment.

“In 2022, 39.0% of women age 25 and older, and 36.2% of men in the same age range, had completed a bachelor’s degree or more as their highest level of educational attainment,” the bureau said in a release published today.

According to the bureau’s Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement, in 2022 the number of persons 25 and older in the civilian noninstitutionalized population (plus those members of the “armed forces living off post or with their families on post”) equaled approximately 226,274,000 people.

Of these, approximately 109,979,000 were men and 116,296,000 were women. Among the 109,979,000 men, approximately 39,852,000—or 36.2%–had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher.

By contrast, there were approximately 116,296,000 women 25 years and older in the civilian noninstitutionalized population. Among these, 45,365,000—or 39.0%–had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Included in the 39,852,000 men who had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher there were 25,192,000 (or 22.9% of the total 25-and-older male civilian noninstitutionalized population) who had earned a bachelor’s degree; 10,156,000 (or 9.2%) who had earned a master’s degree; 1,860,000 (or 1.7%) who had earned a professional degree; and 2,644,000 (or 2.4%) who had earned a doctorate degree.

Included in the 45,365,000 women who had earned a bachelor’s degree or higher there were 27,853,000 (or 24.0% of the total 25-and-older female civilian noninstitutionalized population) who had earned a bachelor’s degree; 13,725,000 (or 11.8%) who had earned a master’s degree; 1,584,000 (or 1.4%) who had earned a professional degree; and 2,203,000 (or 1.9%) who had earned a doctorate degree.

Historically, in the years from 1940 through 2013, men 25 and older in the United States were more likely than women 25 and older to have earned a bachelor’s degree or higher. In 2015, the Census Bureau put out a release–headlined “Women Now at Head of the Class, Lead Men in College Attainment“–that noted that this trend had ended in 2014. In that year and every year since then, a higher percentage of American women than men have held a bachelor’s degree or higher.

“For the first time since measurement began in 1940, women were more likely than men to have a bachelor’s degree,” the Census Bureau said in its 2015 release.

“In 2014, the percentage for men was 29.9, while that for women was 30.2, marking the first year that women’s college attainment was statistically higher than men’s college attainment,” said the bureau.

“In 1940, under 5 percent of the U.S. population held a bachelor’s degree,” the Census Bureau said in that 2015 release. “Men, at 5.5 percent, were more likely than women at 3.8 percent, to have a college education. Although the 1.7 percentage point gap may appear small, it was big relative to the portion of women with bachelor’s degrees (it would have taken a 45 percent increase among women for them to match men).

“Now, nearly 75 years after the Census Bureau began collecting these statistics, the educational attainment of our population has increased to 30 percent–and the gender balance has shifted,” said the Census Bureau.

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