In 2020, there were 3,931 higher education institutions across the United States. This was a decrease from 2015, when there were 4,583 higher education institutions across the nation.

Higher education in the U.S.

Higher education in the United States refers to colleges and universities in the country. The U.S. has some notable distinctions in regards to higher education when compared to the rest of the world, including NCAA sports, Greek life, and high attendance costs. However, a large majority of the world’s best universities are located in the United States. Some of these universities include the eight Ivy League schools, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Stanford University.

Higher education costs

The cost of university in the United States has increased significantly over the last few decades. As a result of these high tuition costs, it has caused students to take out exorbitantly high student loans. Both federal and state governments have decreased the amount of funding towards public schools, but mandatory outlays for higher education are expected to increase over the next several years. In 2021, California had the highest amount of higher education expenditures by state and local governments. California also has the most higher education institutions in the country.

The Colleges and Universities feature class/shapefile is composed of all Post Secondary Education facilities as defined by the Integrated Post Secondary Education System (IPEDS, http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/), National Center for Education Statistics (NCES, https://nces.ed.gov/), US Department of Education for the 2018-2019 school year. Included are Doctoral/Research Universities, Masters Colleges and Universities, Baccalaureate Colleges, Associates Colleges, Theological seminaries, Medical Schools and other health care professions, Schools of engineering and technology, business and management, art, music, design, Law schools, Teachers colleges, Tribal colleges, and other specialized institutions. Overall, this data layer covers all 50 states, as well as Puerto Rico and other assorted U.S. territories. This feature class contains all MEDS/MEDS+ as approved by the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) Homeland Security Infrastructure Program (HSIP) Team. Complete field and attribute information is available in the ”Entities and Attributes” metadata section. Geographical coverage is depicted in the thumbnail above and detailed in the "Place Keyword" section of the metadata. This feature class does not have a relationship class but is related to Supplemental Colleges. Colleges and Universities that are not included in the NCES IPEDS data are added to the Supplemental Colleges feature class when found. This release includes the addition of 175 new records, the removal of 468 no longer reported by NCES, and modifications to the spatial location and/or attribution of 6682 records.

India has the most universities worldwide. According to data from July 2023, there were an estimated 5,350 universities in India. Indonesia had the second most universities, counting 3,300, followed by the United States with 3,200 universities.

There were approximately 18.58 million college students in the U.S. in 2022, with around 13.49 million enrolled in public colleges and a further 5.09 million students enrolled in private colleges. The figures are projected to remain relatively constant over the next few years.

What is the most expensive college in the U.S.? The overall number of higher education institutions in the U.S. totals around 4,000, and California is the state with the most. One important factor that students – and their parents – must consider before choosing a college is cost. With annual expenses totaling almost 78,000 U.S. dollars, Harvey Mudd College in California was the most expensive college for the 2021-2022 academic year. There are three major costs of college: tuition, room, and board. The difference in on-campus and off-campus accommodation costs is often negligible, but they can change greatly depending on the college town.

The differences between public and private colleges Public colleges, also called state colleges, are mostly funded by state governments. Private colleges, on the other hand, are not funded by the government but by private donors and endowments. Typically, private institutions are  much more expensive. Public colleges tend to offer different tuition fees for students based on whether they live in-state or out-of-state, while private colleges have the same tuition cost for every student.

As of January 2023, there were 932 public community colleges registered with the AACC in the United States. This is compared to 71 independent community colleges registered in the United States in that same year.

Expert industry market research on the Colleges & Universities in the US (2005-2030). Make better business decisions, faster with IBISWorld's industry market research reports, statistics, analysis, data, trends and forecasts.

In 2023, there were 403 institutions of higher education in the state of California. Of these 403 institutions, 250 were four-year institutions and 153 were two-year institutions. California had the most higher education institutions of any state in that year.

Abstract (en): The Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS) series was designed to provide comprehensive information on various aspects of postsecondary education in the United States and its territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Marshall Islands) and Department of Defense schools outside the United States. Data are available for both public and private two-year and four-year institutions. The HEGIS Fall Enrollment component for 1977 sought enrollment data from 3,130 institutions of higher education. Key data elements, presented for up to three record types for each institution, include total enrollments of full-time and part-time students by class level, sex, and race, total number of students, full-time credit hour load, and total credits enrolled. Additional data include the institutions' type of accreditation and type of calendar system. All postsecondary institutions in operation in fall 1977 in the United States, the District of Columbia, and outlying territories (American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and the Marshall Islands) and Department of Defense schools outside the United States. (1) The part code variable (column 79) in the data is coded exclusively as "Z", which stands for the summary of all students enrolled. (2) The HEGIS Record Layout file (Part 2) is an Excel worksheet of record layouts for all components of the HEGIS survey, including the 1977 Fall Enrollment component. (3) This collection has not been processed by ICPSR staff. ICPSR is distributing the data and documentation for this collection in essentially the same form in which they were received. When appropriate, hardcopy documentation has been converted to machine-readable form and variables have been recoded to ensure respondents' anonymity. (4) The codebook and data collection instrument are provided as a Portable Document Format (PDF) file. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat Reader is provided through the ICPSR Website on the Internet.

Graph and download economic data for Employment Cost Index: Total compensation for All Civilian workers in Junior colleges, colleges, universities, and professional schools (CIU1016120000000I) from Q1 2001 to Q4 2024 about junior, no college, ECI, compensation, tertiary schooling, workers, civilian, education, and USA.

In the academic year 2023/24, there were 331,602 international students from India studying in the United States. International students The majority of international students studying in the United States are originally from India and China, totaling 331,602 students and 277,398 students respectively in the 2023/24 school year. In 2022/23, there were 467,027 international graduate students , which accounted for over one third of the international students in the country. Typically, engineering and math & computer science programs were among the most common fields of study for these students. The United States is home to many world-renowned schools, most notably, the Ivy League Colleges which provide education that is sought after by both foreign and local students. International students and college Foreign students in the United States pay some of the highest fees in the United States, with an average of 24,914 U.S. dollars. American students attending a college in New England paid an average of 14,900 U.S. dollars for tuition alone and there were about 79,751 international students in Massachusetts . Among high-income families, U.S. students paid an average of 34,700 U.S. dollars for college, whereas the average for all U.S. families reached only 28,026 U.S. dollars. Typically, 40 percent of families paid for college tuition through parent income and savings, while 29 percent relied on grants and scholarships.

Several soil science education studies over the last 15 years have focused on the number of students enrolled in soil science programs. However, no studies have quantitatively addressed the number of undergraduate soil science preparatory programs that exist in the United States, which means we do not have solid data concerning whether overall program numbers are declining, rising, or holding steady. This also means we do not have complete data on the same trends for total undergraduate soil science students in the United States. This study used the US Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Soil Science Series 0470 standards to determine if a bachelor's degree met soil science preparatory criteria. Lists of the approximately 3,500 regionally accredited colleges and universities were obtained from the regional accrediting agencies and the website of each of the colleges and universities was visited to determine if they had a degree program that met the OPM 0470 criteria. A total of 92 soil science preparatory degree programs were identified at 86 colleges and universities. These programs were primarily linked to 1) agriculture, 2) environmental science, and 3) soil and water science based on number of degree occurrences. This study creates a baseline for future studies that can investigate trends in soil science programs. It also provides insight into the institutions and degree programs that should be included in soil science education studies.

This dataset is about universities and is filtered where the country includes United States, featuring 15 columns including address, city, country, description, and domain. The preview is ordered by total students (descending).

Table 2. Number and percentage distribution of private schools, students, and full-time equivalent (FTE) teachers, by religious or nonsectarian orientation of school: United States, 2017–18

Graph and download economic data for Employment Cost Index: Total compensation for Private industry workers in Junior colleges, colleges, universities, and professional schools (CIS2016120000000I) from Q1 2003 to Q4 2024 about junior, no college, ECI, compensation, tertiary schooling, workers, private industries, education, private, industry, and USA.

In 2021, there were 384 institutions of higher education in the state of California. Of these 384 institutions, 247 were four-year institutions and 137 were two- year institutions. California had the most higher education institutions of any state in that year.

Introduction: The number of postdoctoral scholars working at academic institutions in the United States (U.S.) has grown consistently over the past 40 years, driving calls for better infrastructure to support their specific needs. In response, some institutions have built postdoctoral affairs offices that serve as clearinghouses for information, foster improved mentorship between postdoctoral scholars and their supervisors, and provide training opportunities that contribute to professional development. We assessed postdoctoral affairs infrastructure and the associated training opportunities currently offered at the largest academic institutions within the United States as of spring 2022.

Methods: To carry out this survey, we compiled a list of all R1 and R2 institutions in 2021 as determined by the Carnegie classification system. We first placed any institution classified as an R1 or an R2 into one of four categories, based on the information publicly available on each institution’s website:

Institution has a clear “Office of Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA),” or similar infrastructure that is run by the institution. This may include joint offices for graduate and postdoctoral affairs when it is clear that the distinct needs of postdocs are recognized.

Institution has a “Postdoctoral Association (PDA)” that is run by current postdocs on a voluntary basis. Funding may be provided by the institution.

Institution has a postdoc landing webpage, such as a list of links or online resources, but has no clear OPA or PDA.

Institution has no postdoc landing webpage.

There were several instances where a combination of categories 1, 2, and 3 were evident. In some cases, schools/colleges within an institution (e.g., medical school) had resources for their postdocs, but these were not clearly available for all postdoctoral scholars at the institution and thus were not considered for these purposes.

For each institution classified as 1, 2, 3 or a combination thereof, we categorically assessed (Yes/No) whether or not postdocs were offered any postdoc-specific, in-house training by their OPA or PDA by searching the postdoctoral affairs website. We defined “in-house training” as any event that was led or organized by, or otherwise originated in the host institution. We did not include events run by national organizations such as the National Postdoc Association (NPA), or National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD), as we considered these to be separate. While there are areas in which the needs of graduate students and postdocs overlap, for this study we identified postdoc-specific training as events that were clearly and intentionally aimed at postdocs (i.e., were not events combining postdocs with graduate students, faculty and staff, or the wider university community). For those institutions that offered in-house postdoc training, we then categorized each training opportunity or event into one of seven broad themes:

Research skills (e.g., data management, grant writing)

Teaching skills (e.g., pedagogy, curriculum development)

Professional skills (e.g., leadership, mentorship, project management)

Job market preparation (e.g., preparing job application materials, career talks from academia and industry)

Institutional onboarding (e.g., orientations, library information sessions)

Mental health and wellness (e.g., work-life balance)

Diversity, equity and inclusion (e.g., understanding the value of diversity in the workplace)

To standardize data and align with the R1 & R2 2021 Carnegie classification update, we limited our search of postdoc training opportunities to the 2021 calendar year. We did not include every training opportunity within the full calendar year; once we had found an event to fit each of the seven categories, we ended our search for that individual institution. In cases where the events calendar was blank, restricted to current or future events (2022), or located behind an institutional login page, we attempted to locate other publicly available sources of information. Nevertheless, we have likely captured all of the institutions that do actually have training opportunities. After completing the categorization of events, we also summed the total number of different postdoctoral training opportunity themes addressed by the institution.

Acknowledgements: This survey was supported by the Grand Challenges Initiative at Chapman University.

The National Center for Education Statistics’ (NCES) Education Demographic and Geographic Estimates (EDGE) program develops bi-annually updated point locations (latitude and longitude) for private schools included in the NCES Private School Survey (PSS). The PSS is conducted to provide a biennial count of the total number of private schools, teachers, and students. The PSS school location and associated geographic area assignments are derived from reported information about the physical location of private schools. The school geocode file includes supplemental geographic information for the universe of schools reported in the most current PSS school collection, and they can be integrated with the survey files through use of institutional identifiers included in both sources. For more information about NCES school point data, see: https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/Geographic/SchoolLocations and https://nces.ed.gov/programs/edge/Geographic/LocaleBoundaries

Previous collections are available for the following years:

2021-22 2019-20 2017-18 2015-16

All information contained in this file is in the public domain. Data users are advised to review NCES program documentation and feature class metadata to understand the limitations and appropriate use of these data.

This dataset is about universities in the United States, featuring 5 columns: city, country, foundation year, graduate students, and total students. The preview is ordered by total students (descending).

Based on their overall scores according to the Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) World University Rankings 2025, most of the leading Latin American universities are located in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, and Chile. The Universidad de Buenos Aires (Argentina) ranked first with a score of 67.6 out of 100, while the Universidad Autónoma de México (UNAM) ranked fourth, with 61.4 points.

Graph and download economic data for Employment for Educational Services: Colleges, Universities, and Professional Schools (NAICS 6113) in the United States (IPUQN6113W201000000) from 1988 to 2023 about schools, professional, NAICS, tertiary schooling, IP, education, services, employment, and USA.