Closing NYC’s College Attainment Gap

In the Upper East Side, which has the second highest share (68.4 percent) of working-age white residents of all the city’s 55 census-defined neighborhoods and where only 3.5 percent of the population is Black, 88.7 percent of working- age residents have a BA or higher – the highest rate of any neighborhood in the city. [...] In the Lower East Side/Chinatown, 80.3 percent of white residents and 48.8 percent of Asian residents have a bachelor’s degree or higher, compared to 20 percent of Hispanic residents and 11.6 percent of Black residents. [...] Center for an Urban Future In Bedford-Stuyvesant, a neighborhood in which Black residents make up the largest share (38.3 percent) of the working-age population, the rise in the share of white residents with a bachelor’s degree or higher over the past decade (48.3 percent to 74.9 percent) far outpaced that of Black residents (24.3 percent to 29.5 percent) over the past decade. [...] The share of white residents with at least a bachelor’s increased by 19.4 percent, the share of Asian residents with a bachelor’s degree increased by 15.4 percent, and the share of Black residents with a bachelor’s degree increased by 16.4 percent. [...] Black residents have the lowest bachelor’s attainment rate in Morris Heights/Mount Hope (12.2 percent), white residents have the lowest bachelor’s attainment rate in Soundview/Parkchester (7 percent), Hispanic residents have the lowest bachelor’s attainment rate in Morrisania/Tremont/Belmont/West Farms (9.9 percent), and Asian residents have the lowest bachelor’s attainment rate in Soundview/Parkc.