Sixty-eight percent of the high school class of 2014 was enrolled in college by October 2014, according to new data released from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That figure is up from 2013, when 66 percent of graduates enrolled in college the following year. Nationwide, only 32 percent of U.S. adults over age 25 hold bachelor’s degrees, so the numbers demonstrate a potential for that number to rise much higher.
Asian (86 percent) and black students (71 percent) were more likely than whites (67 percent) to enroll in college. Sixty-five percent of Hispanic graduates of all races were enrolled.
Among 2014 graduates not enrolled in college, black high school graduates have a lower unemployment rate than whites: 32.2 percent for whites, 14.7 percent for blacks. This is opposite of the unemployment situation for all adults, in which the white unemployment rate is 4.7 percent, compared to the black unemployment rate of 10.1 percent.
There were 2.9 million high school graduates in 2014, nearly 2 million of which enrolled in college. More women (73 percent) than men (64 percent) from the high school class of 2014 enrolled in college.
Sixteen percent of the class of 2014 are employed without being enrolled in college. Between October 2013 and October 2014, 575,000 students dropped out of high school.
