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National Center for
Question:
Do you have information on postsecondary enrollment trends?
Undergraduate Enrollment
In fall 2021, total undergraduate enrollment in degree-granting 1 postsecondary institutions in the United States 2 was 15.4 million 3 students, 3 percent lower than in fall 2020 (15.9 million students). This continued the downward trend in undergraduate enrollment observed before the coronavirus pandemic. Overall, undergraduate enrollment was 15 percent lower in fall 2021 than in fall 2010, with 42 percent of this decline occurring during the pandemic. In contrast, total undergraduate enrollment is projected to increase by 9 percent (from 15.4 million to 16.8 million students) between 2021 and 2031. 4
In fall 2021, female students made up 58 percent of total undergraduate enrollment (8.9 million students), and male students made up 42 percent (6.5 million students). Between 2010 and 2021, male enrollment decreased by 17 percent (from 7.8 million to 6.5 million students) and female enrollment decreased by 13 percent (from 10.2 million to 8.9 million students). Over this period, male enrollment saw its largest single-year decline in fall 2020 (7 percent), while female enrollment saw its largest single-year decline in fall 2021 (3 percent). In contrast, between 2021 and 2031, female and male enrollment are both projected to increase by 9 percent (to 9.7 and 7.1 million students, respectively).
All racial/ethnic groups had a lower number of undergraduate students enrolled in fall 2021 than in fall 2020 or fall 2019, the year prior to the pandemic. The difference between enrollments in fall 2021 and fall 2019 ranged from less than one half of 1 percent lower for Asian students to 9 percent lower for Pacific Islander students.
Enrollments of undergraduate U.S. nonresident students 5 in U.S. degree-granting postsecondary institutions increased by 38 percent from fall 2010 to fall 2019 (from 398,400 to 548,600), but fell during the pandemic. Nonresident undergraduate enrollment was 3 percent lower in 2021 than in 2020 (455,500 vs. 468,800) and 17 percent lower in 2021 than in 2019 (455,500 vs. 548,600).
1 Degree-granting institutions grant associate’s or higher degrees and participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. 2 Data in this Fast Fact represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 3 Data by subgroup in this Fast Fact may not sum to 15.4 million undergraduate students enrolled in fall 2021 due to rounding. 4 Projections were calculated after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and take into account expected economic and demographic impacts of the pandemic. 5 In the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), data for the U.S. nonresident category are collected alongside data for racial/ethnic categories. Race/ethnicity categories exclude U.S. nonresidents.
SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Undergraduate Enrollment. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved June 16, 2023, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/cha.
Numbers in figure titles reflect original numeration from source Condition of Education indicators.
Postbaccalaureate Enrollment
In fall 2021, some 3.2 million students were enrolled at the postbaccalaureate level 1 in degree-granting institutions in the United States. 2 Postbaccalaureate degree programs include master’s and doctoral programs as well as professional doctoral programs such as law, medicine, and dentistry. Between 2010 and 2019, total postbaccalaureate enrollment increased by 5 percent (from 2.9 million to 3.1 million students), and this trend continued during the coronavirus pandemic, increasing another 5 percent to 3.2 million in 2021. By 2031, postbaccalaureate enrollment is projected to increase by 6 percent (from 3.2 million to 3.4 million students). 3
In fall 2021, female students made up 61 percent of total postbaccalaureate enrollment (2.0 million students) and male students made up 39 percent (1.2 million students). Between 2010 and 2021, female enrollment increased by 14 percent (from 1.7 million to 2.0 million students), whereas male enrollment increased by 3 percent (approximately 1.2 million students in both years). 4 Between 2021 and 2031, female and male enrollments are projected to increase by 6 percent each (to 2.1 million and 1.3 million students, respectively).
Compared with enrollment in 2010, the number of Black students enrolled was 6 percent higher in 2021 (361,900 vs. 382,100). After declining by 2 percent from fall 2011 to fall 2016, the number of Black students enrolled increased by 5 percent by fall 2021.
Postbaccalaureate enrollment in fall 2021 was higher than just prior to the pandemic in fall 2019 for all racial/ethnic groups, including those that saw general declines over the period from 2010 to 2021. The difference between enrollments in fall 2021 and fall 2019 ranged from 2 percent higher for White students to 17 percent higher for Hispanic students.
In fall 2021, degree-granting postsecondary institutions enrolled 433,500 nonresident 5 postbaccalaureate students, a 40 percent increase from the 309,300 students enrolled in 2010. After declining by 11 percent from fall 2019 to fall 2020—during the first year of the coronavirus pandemic—nonresident postbaccalaureate enrollment increased by 14 percent in fall 2021 and was 2 percent higher than in fall 2019 (433,500 vs. 426,100). Fall 2020 marked the lowest single-year count of nonresident students enrolled in postbaccalaureate studies in the United States since 2013.
1 Postbaccalaureate enrollment includes both degree/certificate-seeking and non-degree-/non-certificate-seeking students. 2 Data in this Fast Fact represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. 3 Projections were calculated after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and take into account the expected impacts of the pandemic. 4 Although male enrollment increased by 3 percent between 2010 and 2021 (from 1.21 million to 1.24 students), enrollment in both years rounds to 1.2 million students. 5 In the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), data for the nonresident category are collected alongside data for racial/ethnic categories. Race/ethnicity categories exclude nonresident status.
SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics. (2022). Postbaccalaureate Enrollment. Condition of Education. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved June 16, 2023, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator/chb.
Numbers in figure titles reflect original numeration from source Condition of Education indicators.
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