How Higher Education Impacts Black and White Family Size

New census data shows that black families with higher levels of education tend to have smaller families than blacks where the family head has a low level of education. For whites, the opposite is true. White families with lower levels of education tend to have smaller families than their white counterparts with higher levels of education.

Here are the figures: For black families where the head was college educated, 14.4 percent had five or more members. For black families where the head was a school dropout who did not complete high school, 16.4 percent of all families had five or more members.

For white families where the head had received a bachelor’s degree, 11.9 percent had five or more members. For white families where the head was a school dropout, 9 percent had five or more members.

Copyright © 2007. The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education. All rights reserved.