New Report Looks at the Gender Gap in College Graduation Rates

A new report from the U.S. Department of Education offers graduation rate data for men and women who entered college in 2007 and earned a bachelor’s degree at the same institution with six years. The data shows that at state-operated institutions, the graduation rate for women was 57.6 percent. For men the graduation rate was 52.1 percent. At private, nonprofit institutions, graduation rates were higher but there was a similar gender gap. At private nonprofit institutions, the graduation rate for women was 66.5 percent compared to a 61.4 percent graduation rate for men.

When the data is broken down by racial or ethnic group, we find that the highest graduation for women is among Asians (70.4 percent at state-operated institutions and 78.1 percent at private, nonprofit institutions). The lowest graduation rates were for African American women (41 percent at public colleges and universities and 48.4 percent at private, nonprofit institutions).

The smallest gender gap of only 1.1 percentage points was for Native Hawaiians and other Pacific islanders at private nonprofits. For African Americans at private, nonprofit institutions, the graduation rate for women was 10.8 percentage points higher than the rate for men. This was the largest gender gap for any racial or ethnic group.

The report, Graduation Rates for Selected Cohorts, 2005-10; and Student Financial Aid in Postsecondary Institutions, Academic Year 2012-13, may be downloaded by clicking here.