1996 College Enrollment and Work Activity of High School Graduates — 1997-07-23

Sixty-five percent of 1996 high school graduates were attending colleges or universities by the fall, according to data released today by the U.S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics. This rate was an all-time high. From 1992 to 1995, the enrollment rate was about 62 percent. This information is from the Current Population Survey, a monthly nationwide survey of about 50,000 households, conducted for BLS by the Bureau of the Census. Each October, the survey includes special questions on the school enrollment and high school graduation status of persons 16 to 24 years of age. Of a total of 2.7 million youth who graduated from high school in 1996, about 1.7 million were attending college in October. Young women were more likely than young men to enter colleges or universities--69.7 percent compared with 60.1 percent.