Women catching up to men in college degrees

NEW YORK (Reuters Life!) - More young women are getting college educations and women overall could surpass men in earning university degrees, according to a report by the Census Bureau released on Thursday.

The figures gathered from household surveys showed about 33 percent of young women aged between 25 and 29 had bachelor degrees or higher, compared with 26 percent of men in the same age bracket.

While overall adult men are still be more likely to hold a bachelor's degree or higher, women are quickly catching up, said Sarah R. Crissey, an analyst at the U.S. Census Bureau's Education and Social Stratification Branch.

"Women have eclipsed men in terms of high school diplomas, and it looks like it is going that way with college education too," she said in an interview.

The percentage of men over 25 with bachelor's degrees or higher was 30 percent compared to 28 percent of women, but their lead was down one percent from a year earlier.

Crissey said the momentum seemed to be on the side of the women, as the percentage of college-educated women climbed while the percentage of men stayed the same.

And it pays to get those degrees, the Census Bureau report showed, as adults with advanced degrees earn four times more than those with less than a high school diploma.

Workers over 18 with a bachelor's degree earned an average of $56,788 in 2006, while those with a high school diploma earned just $31,071. People with a master's, professional or doctoral degree, meanwhile, had an average salary of $82,320 in 2006.

In 2007, 29 percent of all adults aged 25 and older reported they had at least a bachelor's degree.

Asians had the highest proportion of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher -- 52 percent-- compared with 32 percent of non-Hispanic whites, 19 percent of blacks and 13 percent of Hispanics.