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. He is author of, among many other books, Muhammad: Prophet of Peace amid the Clash of Empires. Follow him at @jricole.