Women continue to outpace men in Utah college enrollment

SALT LAKE CITY — Once again this year, women are attending Utah's public colleges and universities in greater numbers than men.

Of the approximately 207,000 students enrolled in the Beehive State's degree-granting institutions for the 2024-2025 academic year, 53% were female, according to headcount statistics posted by the Utah System of Higher Education.

A larger number of females are enrolled at each of the state's eight public degree-granting colleges and universities with one exception — the University of Utah, where males hold the majority by a tiny margin.

Women outnumbering men on college campuses is not a new phenomenon — or a local one. Nationally, women have outnumbered men among college students for decades. Utah's gender enrollment statistics, at least in recent years, are similar.

And the gender gap is widening across the United States. In 1979, about 200,000 more women were enrolled in American colleges than men, according to Forbes.

By 2021, more than 3 million more women were enrolled in U.S. colleges than men.

The predominance of women in college headcounts is happening in every state, Forbes reported.

Of the 3.1 million American students who graduated from high school between January and October 2023, 1.9 million — or 61.4% — were enrolled in higher education by the end of the year. But there was an almost 8 percentage-point difference in college-going rates by women high school graduates (65.3%) versus men (57.6%).

There is one area of higher education in Utah where male enrollments outpace females, as reflected by last year's 2023-2024 academic year: technical colleges.

The state operates eight technical colleges, where the total headcount was 58% male, according to the Utah System of Higher Education.

Female college students predominate across Utah

A few trends jump out from this year's female/male college enrollment numbers in Utah.

The gender disparities are more slight at the state's larger degree-granting institutions than at smaller, regional universities and public junior colleges.

According to state higher education figures, 51% of students this academic year at Utah's flagship school — the University of Utah — are male.

Meanwhile, female students at the state's largest higher education institution — Utah Valley University — outnumber their male counterparts by just a few dozen, 23,417 to 23,390.

The difference is larger at Utah State University, where almost 55% of the student body is female.

Meanwhile, at Ogden's Weber State University, about 57% of this year's students are female.

To Utah's south, Southern Utah University has an enrollment of approximately 15,500 students this academic year — and again, females (57%) outnumber males (43%).

Those enrollment ratios are similar at St. George's Utah Tech University, where 58% of students are female.

At Utah's two public junior colleges — Salt Lake Community College and Snow College — females make up about 55% of student enrollment this year at both schools.

Brigham Young University is not a public school — it's sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. But the Provo school's 2024 gender enrollment ratio is similar to other large public universities in the state.

Just over half of BYU students enrolled this fall (51%) are female, per the school.

Why aren't more American males going to college?

The growing gender gap in higher education has been long examined — and the implications are significant. Studies have shown strong correlation between college completion and lifetime earnings.

A 2021 Pew Research Center survey asked American adults without a bachelor's degree why they chose not to seek one.

While both men and women surveyed cited financial constraints as a key reason for not attending or completing college, men were more likely to "point to factors that have more to do with personal choice," according to the Pew report.

About a third of men without a bachelor's degree say a major reason they did not pursue/complete higher education "is that they just didn't want to."

Only 1 in 4 women said the same.

Meanwhile, males were more likely than females to say a major reason for not pursuing a four-year degree is that they didn't need more education for the job or career they wanted.

While the gender gap continues at college campuses, men and women are equally likely to see value in their higher education experience, according to the Pew report.

Overall, almost half of four-year college graduates report their college education being "extremely useful in terms of helping them grow personally and intellectually."

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