Race, Ethnicity, and Gender of Students at 4,438 Institutions, Fall 2010

About These Data

This table shows the race, ethnicity, and gender of students enrolled at 4,438 colleges and universities in the fall of 2010, the latest year for which final figures are available from the Education Department.

That fall, 21.6 million undergraduate and graduate students were enrolled at less-than-two-year, two-year, and four-year postsecondary institutions eligible to participate in Title IV federal student financial-aid programs. Of those, 57.2 percent were female, and 55.3 percent were white.

Among minority groups, blacks made up the largest share, representing 13.4 percent of all students enrolled, followed by Hispanics, 12.2 percent, and Asians, 5.3 percent. More than 60 percent of all students were attending full time.

The figures in this table include undergraduate, graduate, and professional students attending full time and part time at two-year and four-year institutions in the 50 states and Washington, D.C. The data are reported to the department by individual institutions.

The full racial and ethnic categories used by the Education Department are white, black or African-American, Hispanic, Asian, American Indian or Alaska native, Native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, two or more races, race/ethnicity unknown, and nonresident alien. A person can be counted in only one category, and Hispanics may be of any race. Percentages may not add up precisely to 100 percent because of rounding.

For each institution, the percentage of minority students is shown under “Total minority.” That is the sum of enrolled students who are American Indian, Asian, black, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, or two or more races, divided by the total number of students. Just over a third of all college students enrolled in the fall of 2010 identified themselves as members of racial or ethnic minority groups.

Another category, “race unknown,” may include students of any race. Some of those students may have objected to identifying their race or neglected to do so; others may have marked more than one racial category. “Foreign nonresidents” may also be of any race or ethnicity. That category is excluded from the calculation for “total minority.”

The percentage of female students represents all students at the institution.

How to Sort the Data

To make one row of the data stand out, click on the institution name, and that row will be highlighted.

To isolate the data for one state, left-click on the state, and choose “Keep only.” To sort a category by ascending or descending order, left-click on the column heading. If you try to sort the entire table, the figures in the selected column will be sorted state by state, not nationally. If a sort of a column does not work at first, click on the column heading again.

To return to the original presentation of the data, left-click on the circular arrow at the bottom of the table.

How to Search the Data

To view all the institutions from one state, type the full name of the state in the search box on the right labeled “State” and hit enter. To clear that name so you can do another search, click on the “x” on the right-hand side of the search box.

To view a particular institution, type the name in the search box on the right labeled “Institution name.” When the correct institution name appears in a dropdown below the box, click on the square in front of the name, and hit enter. Use “C” for “College” and “U” for “University.” To clear that name so you can do another search, click on the “x” to the right of the name.

To isolate date from just one column, choose the racial category from the dropdown below the search box on the right that is labeled “View individual columns.”