Do more US women or men enrol in higher education?
Gross enrolment in tertiary education as a ratio to the population of typical college age. Women overtook men decades ago and the gap has widened.
Women
94.9
% gross enrolment ratio
Men
64.5
% gross enrolment ratio
Difference
30.4
percentage points higher for women
Figures for 2022, the most recent year in the series.
The shaded band is the gap, measured in % gross enrolment ratio. It was widest in 2021 at
33, narrowest in 1979 at
0.4, and stood at 30.4 in 2022.
Series runs 1971–2022, 38 years with both sexes reported.
What this number counts
Gross enrolment ratio: total enrolment in tertiary education of that sex, regardless of the student’s age, divided by the population of the five-year age group following secondary school.
Tertiary covers universities, colleges and other post-secondary institutions awarding recognised qualifications.
What this number does not say
It can exceed 100%, and that is not an error. Because the numerator includes students of any age and the denominator is one five-year age band, mature students push the ratio above 100.
Enrolment is not completion. This counts people who started, not people who finished or what they studied.
It does not show field of study, where the differences between the sexes are far larger than this single number and run in both directions.
It is not headcount-comparable between countries with different system structures and typical ages.
Source
World Bank World Development Indicators. Compiled by the World Bank from UN agencies, the ILO and national statistical sources. Indicators SE.TER.ENRR.FE · SE.TER.ENRR.MA.