This document presents an analysis of CS participation by gender and race/ethnicity that includes data on CS bachelor’s degrees over time, on AP CS exam participation over time, and on student participation in Code.org’s K-12 platform, comparing student representation in CS to their representation in the overall student population.

The report is divided into five sections, one displaying student representation at each level for all races and ethnicities, and one section for a deeper dive into the data each of the following racial/ethnic groups underrepresented in computing: Hispanic/Latino/Latina students, Black/African American students, Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students, and Native American/Alaskan students.

Access to Foundational Computer Science Courses

In the 2020 State of Computer Science Education: Illuminating Disparities report, we analyzed the enrollment by race and ethnicity in all of the high schools in the U.S. that teach CS in order to see disparities in access in computer science courses. Students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups are less likely to attend a school that teaches CS.

Code.org’s Courses

Students on Code.org’s platform are almost evenly split by gender: 47% of our users are female students and 53% are male students. Within each racial/ethnic group, students are approximately evenly split by gender as well.

Several racial and ethnic groups that are typically underrepresented in CS are overrepresented on our platform: Black/African American students, Native American/Alaskan students, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students (the one exception is Hispanic/Latino/Latina students, who are slightly underrepresented on our platform).

AP Computer Science

AP computer science participation includes both AP Computer Science A and AP Computer Science Principles. The latter course was introduced in 2017, causing an increase in the representation of Black/African American female students, Hispanic/Latina female students, and white female students.

The representation of Hispanic/Latino male students (and to a lesser extent, Black/African American male students) also increased with the introduction of AP Computer Science Principles.

Bachelor’s Degrees in Computer Science

A detailed look at the data on bachelor’s degrees earned in computer science shows that although Black/African American women, Native American/Alaskan women, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander women are earning more degrees each year, they are also earning a smaller share of the total CS degrees each year and becoming less represented. The percent of CS degrees earned by women from most racial and ethnic groups has actually remained fairly stable or declined, with the exception of Asian women. While the percent of degrees earned by white women have dropped, this group still earns the majority of CS degrees.

And the percent of CS degrees earned by men also shows an increase in the representation of Asian and Hispanic/Latino men, but relatively stable representation by other racial and ethnic groups: namely, Black/African American men, Native American/Alaskan men, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander men. Just like for white women, the percentage of degrees earned by white men have also dropped, but this group still earns the majority of CS degrees.

Hispanic, Latino, and Latina Students in Computer Science

Code.org’s Courses (Hispanic/Latino/Latina Students)

Hispanic/Latino/Latina students make up 26% of the U.S. student population. On Code.org’s platform, 21% of students are Hispanic/Latino/Latina (10.1% are female and 10.8% are male).

In our middle and high school courses, Computer Science Principles and Computer Science Discoveries, 15.7% of students are Hispanic/Latino/Latina (6.0% of those students are female and 9.7% are male).

AP Computer Science (Hispanic/Latino/Latina Students)

The number of Hispanic/Latino/Latina students taking AP CS exams has increased since 2016, but most of the growth is in CS Principles, whereas participation in CS A has remained flat. And at the same time as the CSP growth, the percentage of exams taken by Hispanic/Latino/Latina students has hardly budged—from 17.4% in 2017 to 20% in 2019. Thus, even though more Hispanic/Latino/Latina students are taking AP CS exams, and growing at a faster rate than other races/ethnicities, it’s still not representative of their population.

Bachelor’s Degrees in Computer Science (Hispanic/Latino/Latina Students)

The trends in the number of bachelor’s degrees in computer science earned by Hispanic/Latino/Latina men and women follow the general trends in computer science degrees since 2000: an increase in the early 2000’s followed by a dip and accelerating recovery since 2008. In 2018, the number of CS bachelor’s degrees earned by Hispanic/Latina women finally surpassed the 2003 peak.

Yet looking at the percent of CS bachelor’s degrees earned by Hispanic/Latino/Latina men and women shows while the overall percent of degrees earned by Hispanic/Latino men is increasing and getting slowly closer to their overall population, the percent of degrees earned by Hispanic/Latina women has remained stagnant.

Black and African American Students in Computer Science

Code.org’s Courses (Black/African American Students)

Black and African American students make up 15% of the U.S. student population. On Code.org’s platform, 21.2% of students are Black or African American (10.2% are female, and 11% are male).

In our middle and high school courses, Computer Science Principles and Computer Science Discoveries, 17% of students are Black or African American (7.1% of those students are female, and 10% are male).

AP Computer Science (Black/African American Students)

The number of Black and African American students taking AP CS exams has increased since 2016, but most of the growth is in CS Principles. And at the same time as the CSP growth, the percentage of exams taken by Black/African American students has hardly budged—from 5.1% in 2017 to 5.7% in 2019. Thus, even though more students from this population are taking AP CS exams, and growing at a faster rate than other races/ethnicities, it’s still not representative of their population.

Bachelor’s Degrees in Computer Science (Black/African American Students)

The trends in the number of bachelor’s degrees in computer science earned by Black or African American men and women have not followed the same recovery seen by other racial/ethnic groups. After the decline in 2005, the number of degrees has not seen a significant increase. And although there have been slight increases since 2010, the numbers haven’t grown as fast as other racial/ethnic groups.

And the lack of recovery is especially visible in the number of degrees earned by Black or African American women. The percent of Black/African American men earning degrees has remained fairly stable since 2000, but the percent of degrees earned by Black/African American women has declined.

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Students in Computer Science

Code.org’s Courses (Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Students)

Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students make up 0.4% of the U.S. student population. On Code.org’s platform, 0.9% of students are Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander (0.42% female, 0.48% male).

In our middle and high school courses, Computer Science Principles and Computer Science Discoveries, 0.6% of students are Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander (0.2% of those students are female and 0.4% of those students are male).

AP Computer Science (Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Students)

The number of Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students taking AP CS Principles exams has increased since 2017, but the number of students taking AP CS A exams has remained stagnant. And even though CSP exams have increased, the percentage of exams taken by Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students has also remained stagnant. Thus, even though more students from this population are taking AP CS exams, their numbers are not increasing as fast as other races/ethnicities.

Bachelor’s Degrees in Computer Science (Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Students)

The trends in the number of bachelor’s degrees in computer science earned by Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander men and women are only visible since 2011, the first year that the NCES reported this racial group. The number of degrees has generally increased slightly each year, but the number of women earning degrees has not. The number of women peaked in 2016 and declined in the two years since.

And at the same time, other racial and ethnic groups are increasing the number of CS degrees, so the percent of degrees earned by Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander men and women has decreased.

Native American and Alaskan Students in Computer Science

Code.org’s Courses (Native American/Alaskan Students)

Native American and Alaskan students make up almost 1% of the U.S. student population. On Code.org’s platform, 1.3% of students are Native American or Alaskan (0.6% female and 0.7% male).

In our middle and high school courses, Computer Science Principles and Computer Science Discoveries, 0.9% of students are Native American/Alaskan (0.3% of those students are female and 0.6% are male).

AP Computer Science (Native American/Alaskan Students)

The number of Native American and Alaskan students taking AP CS exams has increased since 2016, but most of the growth is CS Principles. Yet the percentage of exams taken by Native American and Alaskan students has decreased since 2014—from 0.35% in 2014 to 0.22% in 2019.

Bachelor’s Degrees in Computer Science (Native American/Alaskan Students)

The trends in the number of bachelor’s degrees in computer science earned by Native American and Alaskan men and women have not followed the same recovery seen by other racial/ethnic groups. After seeing a major drop in 2005, the number of degrees has remained almost stagnant.

And the spike was mainly due to Native American/Alaskan men earning CS degrees; the percent of CS degrees earned by Native American/Alaskan women has slowly dropped since 2000.

Data Sources

The data on Code.org’s platform use and by course was compiled by the Code.org team and represents students active on the platform over the past 365 days and who provided their race/ethnicity and gender.

The data on the K-12 student population demographics is from the U.S Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics 2018 Digest of Education Statistics, Table 203.65, fall 2017. https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d19/tables/dt19_203.65.asp

The data on AP exams is from the College Board’s AP Program Participation and Performance Data files. https://research.collegeboard.org/programs/ap/data/participation/ap-2020

The data on bachelor’s degrees earned in CS comes from the National Center for Education Statistics IPEDS Completion Surveys. We only include data from public and private not-for-profit universities. https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds

For more information and state-by-state data on student participation and representation in computer science, refer to code.org’s blog and advocacy.code.org/stateofcs. You can also see a deep dive on AP CS from Barb Ericson here.

A special thank you to Philip Nelson from Winthrop University for compiling the NCES data on degrees.

You can download a spreadsheet with all of the data used for this report here.