The Master's Inflation
Master's degrees conferred for every 100 bachelor's degrees in the same academic year, from 1981 onward. The ratio climbs from 32 to about 44 — a graduate credential layered on top of a bachelor's pipeline that was itself doubling. It compares same-year pipelines rather than following a cohort, so it tracks the relative scale of the two degree markets, not any individual's odds of continuing.
What does it show?
In 1981 America conferred 32 master's degrees for every 100 bachelor's; today it confers about 44. The credential ladder grew a rung — much of the white-collar labor market now assumes it.
Methodology
Master's degrees conferred divided by bachelor's degrees conferred in the same academic year, from Digest table 318.10, annual since 1980-81. A same-year ratio, not a cohort completion rate — it tracks the relative size of the two degree pipelines.