College Enrollment Statistics in the U.S.

Every year, millions of high school seniors face big decisions about enrolling in college — and they’re not the only ones. Older students, grad students, remote learners, and career switchers make up a diverse and changing student population.

This report delves into the latest college enrollment estimates by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) and other recent enrollment stats. Keep reading to learn more about the data, from college students’ average age to the breakdown between full-time and part-time students and more.

In fall 2023:^{Note Reference [1]}

(Yes, that’s over 18.1 million. Some students in the count were enrolled at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.)

According to data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), after a continuous rise since the 1970s, college enrollment began declining in 2010.

NCES also measures the immediate college enrollment rate: the percentage of 16-24-year-olds who completed high school or earned a GED certificate and were enrolled in college by October of the same calendar year.

Immediate college enrollment in high school has slowed in the past 20 years, following a 14 percentage point jump between 1980 and 2000.

In 2021, 61.8% of recent high school graduates ages 16-24 enrolled in college.^{Note Reference [2]}

The U.S. experienced a college enrollment decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.^{Note Reference [1]}

About 7.6 million college students (about 43%) were enrolled in four-year public institutions in fall 2023.^{Note Reference [1]}

In the chart below, PABs refer to baccalaureate institutions that primarily grant associate degrees. These schools include community colleges that grant bachelor’s degrees.

Most college students are enrolled at the undergraduate level, where bachelor’s degrees are more popular than associate programs.

As of fall 2023:^{Note Reference [1]}

In fall 2023, there were almost twice as many full-time students as there were part-time students. Full-time studies are more common across every institution type except for public two-year colleges, where part-time enrollment is the norm. Part-time enrollment is least common at private nonprofit colleges.

The pandemic caused many college students to shift to online learning. In fall 2021:^[6]

This section covers college enrollment statistics across demographic groups such as race, gender, and age.

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) collects undergraduate and graduate enrollment by race and ethnicity markers included in the table below.

The NSCRC collects similar data using different race and ethnicity markers. Their data found no one racial majority in college admissions. However, there were a substantial number of students whose race was unknown or unreported — roughly 2.8 million undergraduate students (18%).^{Note Reference [1]}

There’s no one racial majority in undergraduate college admissions. However, white students are the largest racial group represented in undergraduate programs.^{Note Reference [1]}

Women outnumber men in college and have since 1979.^{Note Reference [4]}

In fall 2023, over 10.1 million women were enrolled in college, compared to 7.2 million men and fewer than 1 million students whose gender was unreported.^{Note Reference [1]}

Women make up 55% of undergraduate students and nearly 6 in 10 graduate students (59%).

Neither NCES nor NSCRC data reports on nonbinary students, transgender students, intersex students, or other students outside of the male/female or man/woman binary.

However, we do know:

In spring 2023 — the last time this data was made available — the average age of full-time undergraduate students was about 22.5.^{Note Reference [1]} Part-time, graduate, and professional studies students tend to be older than full-time undergraduates.

Students from lower-income families are less likely to enroll in college.

The following graph is from students who were ninth graders in 2009. Out of these students, those in the lowest income bracket were close to 37 percentage points less likely to enroll in college compared to students in the highest.

Additionally, according to fall enrollment estimates by the NSCRC^{Note Reference [1]}, the majority of traditionally aged undergraduate students (those under 24) who are enrolled at a four-year public college come from the wealthiest 40% of the country.

There are more undergraduate college students enrolled in online degree programs than in any one state other than Texas and California.^{Note Reference [1]}