According to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau, male college enrollment has been declining for a decade. Men are now 44% of the college population, which is down from 47% in 2011.
The Pew Research Center‘s analysis of the data shows that despite the rate of high school graduates increasing, the number of graduates enrolling in college continues to decline.
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Fewer young men are in college because their college enrollment rate has declined since 2011. Only 39% of young men who have completed high school were enrolled in college in 2022, down from 47% in 2011. The gender gap in college enrollment has widened. https://t.co/z7IS7mFk3Z pic.twitter.com/Bp3Y2QkmiS
— Richard Fry (@r_fry1) December 18, 2023
Pew Research Center found in a 2021 study that men were more likely to not attend college out of a lack of interest and no need to add more education for their job trade.
Women have increasingly become the majority demographic in college.
Studies have shown that people’s feelings about higher education have turned sharply negative in over a decade. The percentage of young adults who value a college degree as very important fell from 74% to 41%, while only a third has confidence in a degree, according to Gallup polling.
Undergraduate enrollment increased 2.1% for fall 2023 as the pandemic and COVID-19 restrictions made college attendance complicated.
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As the student loan crisis has made financial decisions more financially challenging for students entering the workforce with a large debt burden, some students are questioning the necessity of the degree.
In Maryland, former Republican Gov. Larry Hogan eliminated the college degree requirement from thousands of state government jobs in order to recruit a wider net of applicants and the lack of necessity for the degree according to the job requirements.
