In the 20 years spanning 1997 to 2017, the United States experienced great changes in both the educational attainment and racial and ethnic makeup of its population. U.S. Census data afford us a closer look at the components of U.S. population growth and the subpopulations at the forefront of the nation’s rising educational attainment. Situating students and graduates within the broader U.S. population provides a baseline for assessing changes and disparities in racial and ethnic groups’ rates of postsecondary enrollment, completion, and attainment.