Welcome to the PNPI Explorer blog series, where we will be digging into specific states each week to uncover insights about higher education using the PNPI Explorer tool. For our first post we will examine Alabama.

In 2021 in Alabama, there were 55 institutions of higher education serving 212,158 full-time equivalent (FTE) students. Looking at the Explorer’s Topline report, which shows a summary of the other curated report types, we see that while  Alabama’s FTE enrollment is still majority white, a considerable share (23.8%) of students identify as Black or African American.

In the Completion & Attainment report, we can see how this enrollment distribution compares to bachelor’s degree attainment in Alabama by race. Black or African American students, though they make up 23.8% of FTE enrollment, received just 18.7% of all bachelor’s degrees awarded.

Despite this, our Comparison Tool shows that Alabama is in the top quintile of bachelor’s degrees awarded to Black students. The national share of 8.9% of bachelor’s degrees awarded to Black or African American students falls well below the 18.7% in Alabama:

Though there are persistent completion gaps by race/ethnicity, it is helpful to examine which states primarily enroll students of color and produce the highest shares of Black bachelor’s degree recipients.

Find something interesting about Alabama that you would like to share with us? Drop us a note via our feedback page or discuss your findings on LinkedIn! Check back next week when we explore data insights about Alaska.

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