College Graduation Rates: Full Statistics

As the enrollment cliff nears, fewer people have been going to college in recent years. But, U.S. college students are graduating at higher rates.

The average college graduation rate depends on several factors, from institution type to program length. And it varies across states and student groups.

This report covers college graduation statistics, plus trends from past years.

According to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC), in 2024, just over 61% of college students graduated within six years of starting their program. Almost 65% graduated within eight years.

College graduation rates differ by school type: Public and private nonprofit four-year universities tend to have higher-than-average graduation rates.

Private nonprofit four-year colleges have an average graduation rate of about 76%. Public four-year colleges have an average graduation rate of about 71%. Among four-year institutions, for-profit schools have the lowest average graduation rate, at just under 36%.

According to the most recently reported data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), graduation rates at private two-year colleges (both nonprofit and for-profit) are higher than those at public two-year colleges.

Public two-year schools, also called community colleges, tend to have lower graduation rates than four-year schools. However, some community college students transfer to four-year schools to finish their degrees.

At every type of institution, the current overall U.S. graduation rate is higher than it has been in recent years. In fact, graduation rates have increased an average of 6.4 percentage points between the 2007 and 2018 entry classes.

At public four-year universities, the graduation rate has increased 5.8 percentage points since 2007’s entry class.

The chart below shows the year-over-year graduation rates for students attending different school types. “PAB” below refers to primarily associate-degree-granting institutions that offer some bachelor’s degrees.

The table below shows the average six-year graduation rates for four-year public colleges in each state. These figures include students who graduated from their first school or after transferring to another school within 150% of program time (i.e., six years after starting).

In 2024, women college students were more likely to graduate from college than men. Across all school types, women graduated at a rate of roughly 67%, compared to men at 60%.

Women have historically graduated at higher rates than men. That said, graduation rates have been increasing annually for both genders at about the same rate.

Not only do women graduate from college at higher rates than men, but they also enroll in college at higher rates. In fact, women have outnumbered men in college since 1979. Explore more facts and statistics in our college enrollment report.

In 2024, the college graduation rate was around 77% for Asian college students, 73% for white students, 52% for Hispanic students, and 45% for Black students.

Racial disparities in graduation rates persist across school types. For example, in 2018’s college entry class, across all private, nonprofit four-year universities, 85% of Asian students and 81% of white students graduated. Meanwhile, just 70% of Hispanic students and 55% of Black students graduated from those universities

Centuries of racial exclusion in higher education influence college enrollment and graduation rates. Find statistics about racial and ethnic diversity among college students in our diversity in higher education report

Unless stated otherwise, “graduation rate” refers to the percentage of college entrants who graduated within 150% of the standard program rate. That means that students graduated within six years at four-year schools and within three years at two-year schools.