Beyond Your Campus: College Access & Success

The College Board Education Pays provides information about college enrollment patterns, completion rates, and educational attainment levels across demographic groups in the United States. In 2021, 39% of adults aged 25 to 29 in the U.S. held a bachelor’s degree, an increase from 29% in 2001 and from 22% in 1981. In 2021, 12% of Native, 23% of Hispanic, 28% of Black, 45% of White, and 72% of Asian adults aged 25 to 29 held a bachelor’s degree.

Key Historical Trends:

• Between 1981 and 2021, the share of adults aged 25 to 29 who held a bachelor’s degree more than doubled for Black individuals (from 12% to 28%) and almost tripled among Hispanic individuals (from 8% to 23%). The share with a bachelor’s degree increased from 25% to 45% for White individuals.
• Between 1991 and 2021, the share of Asian adults aged 25 to 29 with a bachelor’s degree increased from 43% to 72%.
• Between 2011 and 2021, the share of American Indian/Alaska Native adults aged 25 to 29 with a bachelor’s degree was consistently less than 20%.

Attainment rates are three-year moving averages. Data for the Asian group are not available prior to 1989 and include Pacific Islanders prior to 2003. Data for the American Indian/Alaska Native group are not available prior to 2003 and should be interpreted with caution because of large standard errors.

Source: NCES, The Condition of Education, 2007, Table 27-3; Digest of Education Statistics, 2010, Table 8; Digest of Education Statistics, 2013, 2014, and 2021, Table 104.20.