Women 65+ Are Less Educated

Going to college was once an experience that divided younger generations from older Americans. Now the divide has disappeared. Well, almost. Although the majority of men and women in every age group has college experience, there's one exception: women aged 65 or older are less educated than everyone else.

Only 46 percent of women aged 65-plus have college experience. In contrast, a much larger 64 percent of women under age 65 have been to college. Among men regardless of age, the majority has college experience—including 54 percent of men aged 65 or older.

But older women are playing catch-up as Boomers fill the 65-plus age group. In 2010, the year before the first Boomers turned 65, only 39 percent of women aged 65-plus had college experience. By 2016, most older women will have spent some time on a college campus, and college experience will become the norm for men and women in every age group.

Source: Census Bureau, 2014 Current Population Survey