How America has Failed African-American Youth, by the Numbers

Juan Cole 07/17/2013

At age 25, 7.5 percent of whites are high school dropouts.

At age 25, 14.4 percent of African-Americans are high school dropouts

By age 25, 30% of whites have earned a college Bachelor of Arts degree. About 14% of African-Americans have:

Some 22 percent of American children under 18 live in households below the poverty line.

About 12% of white children live in poverty.

About 40% of Black children live in poverty:

By some measures, African-American youth unemployment is 42%

Graph: Youth unemployment by age and race:

About the Author

Juan Cole is the founder and chief editor of Informed Comment and Richard P. Mitchell Professor of History at the University of Michigan. Follow him at @jricole