Undergraduate enrollment has increased over all in the past three decades, but the enrollment of women and minority students has increased faster than that of men and white students, according to a report released on Thursday by the U.S. Education Department.

Each year the department's National Center for Education Statistics analyzes the state of education in the United States and presents its findings to Congress in a statistical report called "The Condition of Education."

According to the 2003 report, the proportion of white students among all students enrolled in two-year and four-year, public and private postsecondary institutions dropped by 8.1 percentage points over the most recent 10-year period for which figures were available. White students accounted for 67.8 percent of total enrollments in 1999-2000, compared with 75.9 percent in 1989-1990.

Over the same period, the enrollment of black students and members of other minority groups steadily increased. The proportion of Hispanic students enrolled in higher-education institutions grew by 3.8 percentage points, to 12.2 percent; and that of black students grew by 2.4 percentage points, to 12.6 percent. Combined, minority students made up about one-third of the student population in 1999-2000, compared with only one-fourth in 1989-1990.

Meanwhile, the number of women seeking a higher education continues to outpace that of men, as it has since the 1970s. Women accounted for 56.3 percent of all students enrolled in institutions of higher education in 1999-2000, a one-percentage-point gain from 55.4 percent in 1989-1990.

Over the next 10 years, according to the report, total undergraduate enrollments of men and women are projected to increase, but women's enrollment is projected to continue growing at a faster rate.