Black Progress in Professional Degree Attainments

In the 2004-05 academic year, blacks earned 5,987 professional degrees in fields such as law, medicine, dentistry, and veterinary science. Blacks were awarded 6.9 percent of all professional degrees given out in the United States that year. The number of blacks earning professional degrees in 2005 increased 6.2 percent from the previous year.

Since 1985 the number of blacks earning professional degrees has nearly doubled. But in recent years the number of blacks earning professional degrees has increased at a slower rate. There was a far more rapid pace of improvement in the early 1990s.

As in most areas of higher education, black women hold a large lead in professional degree attainments. In the 2004-05 academic year black women were awarded 3,846 professional degrees compared to 2,141 for black men. Thus, black women accounted for 64.2 percent of all professional degrees awarded to African Americans.