Family characteristics in terms of parental education and income are an important influence on individual’s participation in higher education. In India it could be found that categorically those who are out of the higher education system belong to marginalized groups due to their economic class, caste, gender, religion etc. despite massive expansion of higher education. With this background, this article seeks to examine the effect of family income and parental education on an individual’s probability of attaining higher education in India. Besides these two variables, an individual’s likelihood of participation in higher education is influenced by social, religious and demographic characteristics for both rural and urban youth in India. Using multivariate logistic regression to analyze data from National Sample Survey (NSS) 68th Round (unit level records), the article examines how an individual’s participation in higher education is governed by his/her economic and social background and also by gender-related aspects. The results reveal that parental education and family income exert a direct effect on an individual’s propensity to participate in higher education. In terms of social and religious group, this youth belonging to Scheduled Tribe and Scheduled Caste have significantly lower odds of going to higher education compared to general category for the whole of India. Females are less likely to participate in higher education in rural area, while Hindu females in rural area are less probable to participate in higher education. Hence, this article seeks to contribute, from an economic perspective, to the growing number of empirical studies that have investigated the background factors that influence higher education participation.