The percentage of male high school graduates who enroll in college soon after graduating from high school fell to the lowest level in almost 40 years, according to government data. Among 16-to-24-year-old men who graduated from high school in 2021, just 54.9 percent had enrolled in college by October of that year. The 2021 enrollment rate is a hefty 4.4 percentage points below the 2020 figure and fully 12.5 percentage points below the all-time high recorded in 2016. Not since 1983 has the male enrollment rate been lower.
Male college enrollment rate for selected years
2021: 54.9%
2020: 59.3%
2016: 67.4% (record high)
2010: 62.8%
2000: 59.9%
1990: 58.0%
1980: 46.7%
1970: 55.2%
1960: 54.0%
Note: The college enrollment rate is the percentage of 16-to-24-year-olds who graduated from high school in a given year and were enrolled in college by October of that year.
While men's college enrollment rate fell between 2020 and 2021, the enrollment rate of women increased by 3.3 percentage points to 69.5 percent. Women's 2021 rate is not far from the all-time high of 74.0 percent reached in 2010.
The gap between women's and men's college enrollment rates has never been larger. With an enrollment rate of 69.5 percent for women and just 54.9 percent for men in 2021, the difference between women's and men's college enrollment rates is nearly 15 percentage points.
Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics, TED: The Economics Daily, 61.8 Percent of Recent High School Graduates Enrolled in College in October 2021, and National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, Table 302.10
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