Radio sound bites

Education
84%
The percentage of women age 25 and over with at least a high school diploma in 2000; the percentage for men does not differ significantly. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00-211.html>

• The gap between men and women with college degrees has not closed completely, but the percentages are close. In 2000, 24 percent of women age 25 and over had a bachelor's degree or higher, compared with 28 percent of men. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00-211.html>
  
  

• But younger women have gone beyond closing the education gap. They have opened a reverse gap. As of 2000, 30 percent of young women, ages 25 to 29, had completed college, which exceeded the 28 percent of their male counterparts who had done so. Young women, 25 to 29, also had higher high school completion rates than young men: 89 percent versus 87 percent. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2000/cb00-211.html>

56%
The proportion of college students in 2000 who were women. Women have represented the majority of college students since 1979. <http://www.census.gov/population/www/socdemo/school/ppl-148.html>

Earnings and Income
$27,355
The 2000 median earnings of women working full time, year round. These women earned 73 percent of what men with similar work experience made. The ratio of female-to-male earnings for such workers returned to a level comparable to its all-time high of 74 percent recorded in 1996. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-158.html>

• Family households maintained by a woman with no husband present saw their income increase, after adjustment for inflation, by 4 percent between 1999 and 2000, to $28,116. Other types of households experienced no significant change in their median household income over this period. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-158.html>

24.7%
The record-low poverty rate in 2000 for families made up of a female householder with no husband present. The number of such families that were poor declined from 3.5 million in 1999 to 3.1 million in 2000.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-158.html>

Jobs
61%
The percentage of women age 16 and over in the civilian labor force in March 2000. The percentage for men was 74 percent. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-49.html>

• Of the 71 million women at least 15 years old who worked in 2000, 59 percent worked full time, year round -- up from 57 percent in 1999. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-158.html>
  
  

• Seventy-two percent of women age 16 and over in 2000 worked in one of four occupational groups: administrative support, including clerical (24 percent); professional specialty (18 percent); service workers, except private household (16 percent); and executive, administrative and managerial (14 percent). <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-49.html>

Businesses
5.4 million
The number of women-owned businesses in the United States in 1997. These businesses employed 7.1 million people and generated $819 billion in revenues. They made up 26 percent of the nation's 20.8 million nonfarm businesses. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-61.html>

• One-third of women-owned businesses in 1997 were located in four states: California, New York, Texas and Florida. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-61.html>

31%
The percentage of firms in the District of Columbia that were women-owned in 1997, the highest rate for states or state equivalents. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-61.html>

99,000
The number of women-owned firms with receipts of $1 million or more in 1997. These large firms accounted for 2 percent of the total number of women-owned firms but 68 percent of their receipts.
<http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-61.html>

Motherhood

• The proportion of mothers with infant children who were in the labor force declined from a record-high 59 percent in 1998 to 55 percent in 2000. This marked the first significant decline in this rate since the Census Bureau began publishing the rate in 1976. In that year, 31 percent of these mothers were in the labor force. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html>
  
  

• Among mothers ages 15 to 44 who did not have infants, 74 percent were in the labor force in 2000. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html>

3.9 million
Number of women who gave birth between June 1999 and June 2000; 1.6 million of these gave birth for the first time. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html>

1.9
The average number of children who women 40- to 44-years-old in 2000 had given birth to by the end of their childbearing years. This average is one child fewer than the average for women in this same age group in 1980 (3.0 children). <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html>

19%
The proportion of all women, ages 40 to 44, who were childless in 2000, almost twice as high as women of the same age range in 1980 (10 percent). <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-170.html>

Marriage and Family
25.1 years
The median age at first marriage for women in 2000. This compares to 20.8 years in 1970. Women, on average, are 1.7 years younger than men the first time they marry. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html>

• In 2000, 52 percent of women were currently married, down from 60 percent in 1970. Similarly, 25 percent had never married and 13 percent were divorced or separated in 2000, up from 22 percent and 6 percent, respectively, in 1970. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html>
  
  

• In the past 30 years (1970-2000), the proportion of those who never married doubled for women, ages 20 to 24, from 36 percent to 73 percent, and more than tripled for women, ages 30 to 34, from 6 percent to 22 percent. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html>

15%
The percentage of wives in 2000 who earned at least $5,000 more than their husbands. In unmarried-partner households, the corresponding proportion for women was 22 percent. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html>

21%
The percentage of wives who in 2000 lived in married-couple households and had higher levels of education than their husbands. In unmarried-partner households, the corresponding proportion was 28 percent. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html>

10 million
The number of single mothers in 2000, up from 3 million in 1970. In 2000, 26 percent of all families included a single mother, up from 12 percent in 1970. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html>

31 million
The number of households in 2000 -- about 3 in 10 -- maintained by women with no husband present. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01-113.html>

Population Distribution
143.4 million
The number of females counted in Census 2000, which exceeded the number of males (138.1 million). Males outnumbered females in every age group through ages 25 to 34. Starting with the 35-to-44 age group, women outnumbered men. By age 85, there were twice as many women as men. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01cn181.html>

85
The number of males for every 100 females in Gary, Ind., according to Census 2000. This was the lowest male-female ratio of any place with a population of 100,000 or more. The highest male-female ratio belonged to Salinas, Calif., with 114 males for every 100 females. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01cn181.html>

• Among the nation's 245 places with a population of 100,000 or more, the female population exceeded the male population in 201 places (82 percent) in Census 2000. <http://www.census.gov/Press-Release/www/2001/cb01cn181.html>
  

The preceding facts come from the Current Population Survey, Census 2000 and the Survey of Women-Owned Business Enterprises. The data are subject to sampling variability and other sources of error. Previous Census Bureau Facts for Features this year: African American History Month (February) and Valentine's Day (Feb. 14). Questions or comments should be directed to the Census Bureau's Public Information Office (Tel: (301) 457-3030; fax: (301) 457-3670; e-mail: <pio@census.gov>).