Gender Gap in Higher Education Enrollments Projected to Expand by 2020

The U.S. Department of Education recently released projections of enrollments in higher education through the year 2020. Total enrollments are expected to increase from 20,688,000 this year to 23,016,000 in 2020. That is an increase of 11.3 percent.

During this period, the number of women enrolled in higher education is expected to increase by 15.8 percent from 11,720,000 to 13,566,000.

Enrollments of men are expected to increase by only 6.2 percent by 2020.

According to the estimates, women make up 56.9 percent of all enrollments in higher education today. By 2020, women will be 58.9 percent of all students enrolled in degree-granting institutions.