Regional Differences in Graduate Degree Attainment of Blacks and Whites

Last week JBHE reported the results of our analysis of regional differences in four-year college degree attainments between blacks and whites. Blacks in the western states are 34 percent more likely than African Americans generally to have a four-year college degree.

Now we turn to graduate degrees. Nationwide 10.8 percent of all whites over the age of 25 hold a graduate degree. This includes holders of master’s and professional degrees as well as doctorates. For blacks over the age of 25, 5.8 percent of all adults hold a graduate degree.

In graduate degree attainments blacks in the West are more highly educated than African Americans generally. Nearly 7.5 percent of all black adults in the West over the age of 25 have a graduate degree. Blacks in the Northeast also do better than the national average. In that region, 6.4 percent of all adult blacks have a graduate degree. In the Midwest, only 4.4 percent of all adult blacks have completed a graduate degree.

The racial gap in graduate degree attainment is largest in the Northeast. Some 13.8 percent of all white adults in the Northeast have a graduate degree. This is 7.4 percentage points higher than the rate for black adults. The racial gap is smallest in the South. There the percentage of white adults with a graduate degree stands at 9.6 percent. This is 3.8 percentage points higher than the rate for blacks over the age of 25 in the southern states.

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