Abstract We present results of a deep spectroscopic survey quantifying the statistics of the escape of ionizing radiation from star-forming galaxies at z  ∼ 3. We measure the ratio of ionizing to non-ionizing UV flux density , where f 900 is the mean flux density evaluated over the range 880, 910 Å. We quantify the emergent ratio of ionizing to non-ionizing UV flux density by analyzing high signal-to-noise ratio composite spectra formed from subsamples with common observed properties and numbers sufficient to reduce the statistical uncertainty in the modeled IGM+CGM correction to obtain precise values of , including a full-sample average  = 0.057 ± 0.006. We show that increases monotonically with , inducing an inverse correlation with UV luminosity as a by-product. We fit the composite spectra using stellar spectral synthesis together with models of the ISM in which a fraction f c of the stellar continuum is covered by gas with column density . We show that the composite spectra simultaneously constrain the intrinsic properties of the stars ( L 900 / L 1500 ) int along with f c , , , and f esc,abs , the absolute escape fraction of ionizing photons. We find a sample-averaged f esc,abs  = 0.09 ± 0.01, with subsamples falling along a linear relation . Using the far-UV luminosity function, the distribution function n ( W (Ly α )), and the relationship between and , we estimate the total ionizing emissivity of z  ∼ 3 star-forming galaxies with M uv  ≤ −19.5, which exceeds the contribution of quasi-stellar objects by a factor of ∼3, and accounts for ∼50% of the total ϵ LyC at z  ∼ 3 estimated using indirect methods.