College Enrollment Trends and Statistics: 2024-2025

Millions of high school seniors apply to college every year— and they’re not the only ones. Older students, graduate students, remote learners, and career switchers make up a diverse and changing student population.

This report covers the latest college enrollment estimates conducted by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center (NSCRC) and more data from the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) and the U.S. Census Bureau.

Keep reading to learn about the number of college students in the U.S. and how it compares to previous years.

According to NSCRC estimates, at the start of the 2024-2025 school year, about 19.1 million students were enrolled at a postsecondary institution, including nearly 16 million undergraduates and about 3.2 million graduate students.^{Note Reference [1]}

Bachelor’s degree programs are the most popular programs by enrollment. Below are the NSCRC’s 2024 fall enrollment estimates for various degree and other credential-granting programs.^{Note Reference [1]}

The greatest number of college students are enrolled at public four-year universities (7.9 million), followed by public two-year colleges (4.8 million) and private nonprofit four-year colleges (4.1 million).

One million students are enrolled at primarily associate-degree granting baccalaureate institutions (PABs). PABs mostly offer two-year programs but may have some bachelor’s degree programs, such as community colleges that grant bachelor’s degrees.

Around 900,000 students attend for-profit four-year colleges.^{Note Reference [1]}

Fall enrollment in 2024-2025 was up 4.5% compared to the previous academic year.^{Note Reference [1]} It’s the greatest college enrollment increase in the U.S. in the recent past.

In the years following the COVID-19 pandemic, the country experienced a college enrollment decline and other pandemic-related challenges in higher education. This decline was mostly driven by undergraduate enrollment. Graduate student enrollment actually increased slightly in the years following the pandemic.

College enrollment trended up again for the first time in fall 2023.

Sometimes, we look specifically at first-year college student enrollment, because new student enrollment can help predict future enrollment patterns.

In fall 2024, first-year student enrollment was up 5.5% compared to the previous year. Enrollment gains were stronger among older first-year students — ages 21-24 (+16.7%) and 25 and older (+19.7%) — than among traditionally aged first-year students (+3.4%).

NCES has projected that undergraduate enrollment levels will increase slightly through 2030.

Historical data shows a continuous rise in college enrollment from 1970-2010, followed by a gradual enrollment decline from 2010-2020 and a steeper drop after 2020. NCES accounted for the anticipated impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on enrollment to project future trends.^[5] The organization estimated a 9% increase in undergraduate enrollment from 2021-2031.^{Note Reference [4]}

According to NCES projections for undergraduates in 2021-2031:^{Note Reference [4]}

In the following sections, we’ll examine the demographic makeup of currently enrolled college students — by gender, race, age, and income.

Women outnumber men in college and have since 1979.^{Note Reference [5]}

In fall 2024, an estimated 8.7 million women and 6.4 million men were enrolled in undergraduate programs. About 1.9 million women and 1.1 million men were enrolled in graduate programs. Six percent of college students (roughly 1 million) did not disclose their gender.

Neither NCES nor NSCRC report on nonbinary students, transgender students, intersex students, or other students outside of the male/female or man/woman binary. However, in 2022, LGBTQ+ educator and expert Genny Beemyn, Ph.D., analyzed over 1.2 million college applications, finding that 2.15% of college applicants were trans or nonbinary.^[6]

According to NSCRC estimates, there’s no one racial majority in college enrollments. However, white students are the largest racial or ethnic group, including 40% of undergraduates and 41% of graduates. Hispanic students are the next largest group, including 19% of undergraduates and 10% of graduate students.

It’s important to consider that a substantial number of students — 18% of undergraduates and 15% of graduate students — did not report their race or ethnicity.

Research has linked racially diverse colleges with positive student outcomes. However, in the past year, an increasing number of states have passed anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion legislation impacting higher education. Such legislation threatens scholarships, research institutes, and student resources that promote diversity.

Learn more about the state of diversity in higher education. Find in-depth enrollment data in our reporting on Hispanic and Latino/a college students and Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander students.

About 65% of undergraduate students are aged 18-24. About 10% are 17 or younger, including many dual-enrollment students, who take high school and college classes.

Perhaps surprisingly, 16% of undergraduates (about 2.6 million) are aged 30 or older.

Graduate students are generally older than undergraduates. Even so, the majority (57%) are under 30.

There is a direct correlation between college enrollment and neighborhood income levels.

Nearly one-third of traditionally aged undergraduate students (30%) come from the top quintile (the top 20%) of wealth by zip code. Just 12% of college students come from the least wealthy neighborhoods — the bottom quintile.

Between fall 2023 and fall 2024, college enrollment levels increased in every U.S. state except Nebraska and Vermont, where enrollments decreased by less than 1%. College enrollments also decreased in Washington, D.C., by 1.9%.

Utah saw the greatest increase in college enrollments — up 12% from 2023.

College enrollment rates generally correlate with a state’s population. Larger states have more college students. However, more college students are enrolled in online degree programs than in any one state other than Texas and California.