Black Enrollments in Higher Education Continue to Climb

The latest data from the U.S. Department of Education shows that in the fall of 2005 there were nearly 2.1 million African Americans enrolled in higher education in the United States. This includes students enrolled in two-year and four-year colleges as well as in graduate school. There were nearly 45,000 more African Americans enrolled in higher education in 2005 than was the case the previous year. This is an increase of 2.2 percent.

Blacks were 11.7 percent of the nearly 18 million students enrolled in higher education nationwide. This is nearly equivalent to the percentage of blacks in the college-age population.

Black progress over the past decade has been nothing short of spectacular. In 1995 there were 1,474,000 blacks enrolled in higher education. By 2005 black enrollments had increased by more than 42 percent. In 1995 blacks were 10.3 percent of all enrollments in higher education compared to 11.7 percent today.

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