Do women now earn most degrees, and are boys falling behind at school?

Degree figures are counts of credentials awarded in a year, as reported by institutions. In Canada in 2024, women received 58.6% of university undergraduate degrees and men 39.7%; the rest were of unknown gender. In the US in 2021–22, women received 58.5% of bachelor’s degrees and 62.6% of master’s degrees.

This is not new. In the US, women first earned more bachelor’s degrees than men in 1981–82, and have earned more in every year the NCES table shows since then.

School performance is measured here by PISA, an international test of 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science run every few years by the OECD. It tests a sample of students, so small differences may not be meaningful; the gaps reported here are ones the publishers identify as statistically significant.

In reading, yes. In 2022, girls outscored boys by 24 points in Canada and 22 points in the US. Boys were also more likely to fall below the level PISA treats as a baseline: in Canada, 21.8% of boys compared with 14.4% of girls.

In mathematics, the gap runs the other way. Boys outscored girls by 12 points in Canada and 13 points in the US, and in Canada 15% of boys reached the top two levels compared with 10% of girls. A similar share of girls and boys reached the baseline level in mathematics (78% and 79%).

In science, average scores showed no measurable difference between girls and boys in either country; in Canada both averaged 515. Canadian boys were slightly more likely than girls to score at both the lowest and the highest levels.

The overall majority of women among graduates hides very different patterns by field. In Canada in 2024, men earned about 73% of undergraduate degrees in mathematics and computer science and 72% in engineering, while women earned about 74% in health and 76% in education. Business was close to even.

Supported: women earn most bachelor’s and master’s degrees in both countries, and have earned most US bachelor’s degrees since the early 1980s.

Supported: boys trail girls in reading at age 15, and more boys than girls have weak reading skills.

Misleading: describing this as boys falling behind at school in general. Boys outperform girls in mathematics and match them in science, and men remain the large majority in engineering and computer science degrees.

Not established by these figures: why the gaps exist, or whether schools treat boys and girls differently. These are descriptions of outcomes, not of causes.

PISA uses the same test in both countries, so its scores can be compared, with care. Degree figures cannot: Canada reports graduates by calendar year and program level, while the US reports degrees conferred by academic year, and US doctor’s degrees include professional degrees such as medicine and law.

Degree counts measure credentials, not people. One person can earn more than one in a year, and the figures do not show completion rates or who started a program but did not finish.

Canada’s PISA 2022 results should be read with some caution: the Council of Ministers of Education notes that one or more PISA technical standards were not met for Canada and most provinces. The next PISA results, from the 2025 assessment, will update these figures.

These figures do not cover high school graduation, apprenticeships or college trades programs. A future version may add them.