US Women's Education Statistics: Degrees by Age & Race

The overall picture by age group

Educational attainment peaks in the 25-34 bracket, the first cohort to have fully completed the modern college pipeline. In that group, 25% of women have a high school education or less, 28% have some college or an associate degree, 35% hold a bachelor's degree, and 12% hold a graduate degree.

The 18-24 bracket looks less educated on paper mainly because many are still enrolled: 40% report some college as their current attainment, and only 25% have finished a bachelor's or higher. Among women aged 35-44, attainment settles at 30% high school or less, 32% some college, 28% bachelor's, and 10% graduate degrees.

Attainment gaps by race and ethnicity

The racial gaps in female educational attainment are among the largest in any demographic statistic. Among women aged 25-34, 72% of Asian women hold a bachelor's degree or higher (52% bachelor's plus 20% graduate), compared with 52% of white women, and 33% of both Black and Hispanic women.

At the other end of the distribution, 35% of Hispanic women and 32% of Black women aged 25-34 have a high school education or less, versus 22% of white women and just 10% of Asian women. These gaps reflect differences in family income, school quality, and immigration history, and they compound with income and marriage statistics covered elsewhere on this site.

The reversed gender gap

For most of the twentieth century, American men out-graduated women; the pattern reversed around 1980 and the gap has widened every decade since. National Center for Education Statistics data shows women now earn about 58% of all bachelor's degrees, 62% of master's degrees, and a majority of doctoral and professional degrees.

The reversal has demographic consequences. Because people tend to marry within their education level, the surplus of degree-holding women relative to degree-holding men means growing numbers of college-educated women either partner with non-degree men or remain unpartnered longer. Researchers at Pew have documented this mismatch as one driver of later marriage among educated women.

The imbalance is largest exactly where dating activity is concentrated. Among adults aged 25-34, there are now roughly four college-educated women for every three college-educated men, and in many large metropolitan areas the ratio is more lopsided still. Sociologists studying assortative mating expect the gap to reshape marriage patterns for decades, since the cohorts now in college show an even wider female enrollment advantage.

What education predicts

Educational attainment is the single most powerful predictor among common demographic variables. It correlates strongly with income (the majority of six-figure female earners hold degrees), with marriage timing (degree-holding women marry roughly four years later but divorce less), with fertility timing, and with political identification.

It also stratifies geography. Census data shows that in some metropolitan counties more than 60% of young women hold degrees, while in many rural counties the figure is under 20%. Anyone filtering a dating pool on education is implicitly filtering on location, income, and age at the same time.

Run the numbers yourself

Education is one of the filters in the Female Partner Calculator, which multiplies attainment shares by age, marital status, and other criteria to estimate how many US women fit a complete set of preferences, using the Census tables cited in this article.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

• U.S. Census Bureau, Educational Attainment Tables (B15002)
• U.S. Census Bureau, Educational Attainment in the United States
• Pew Research Center, Rising Share of U.S. Adults Are Living Without a Spouse or Partner
• General Social Survey, NORC at the University of Chicago