U.S. educational attainment by race

Data from the U.S. Census Bureau shows the highest level of education attained. In an equal society, we would expect to see roughly similar levels of educational attainment across races.

Here, we see that while 1.3% of Whites had less than a 9th grade education, more than twice that percentage (2.3x) of Blacks had less than a 9th grade education. Likewise for those that completed some high school, but didn’t finish. Just over 4% of Whites fell into this category, while it was more than 9% for Blacks (2.2x differential).

The data flips for higher levels of education. A full 25% of Whites earned a bachelor’s degree, while just 16.6% of Blacks did (1.5x differential). The gap widens further for advanced degrees. 15% of Whites had an advanced degree and 9.5% of Blacks had one (1.6x differential).

Education level at >25 years old by race (percentage of total)

	Less than 9th grade	9th to 12th grade (no diploma)	High school graduate	Some college or associate’s degree	Bachelor’s degree	Advanced degree
White	1.3%	4.1%	27.4%	27.1%	25.0%	15.1%
Black	3.0%	9.2%	32.6%	29.2%	16.6%	9.5%
Other	11.5%	9.8%	27.6%	21.0%	18.9%	11.2%
Total	3.9%	6.0%	28.1%	25.9%	22.6%	13.5%

Education level at >25 years old by race (number, in thousands)

	Less than 9th grade	9th to 12th grade (no diploma)	High school graduate	Some college or associate’s degree	Bachelor’s degree	Advanced degree
White	1,856	5,830	39,094	38,624	35,642	21,511
Black	810	2,514	8,944	8,013	4,544	2,604
Other	5,937	5,028	14,221	10,791	9,751	5,765