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.

In the academic year of 2023/24, around 21 million students were enrolled for undergraduate degrees in the United States. This was a slight increase from the previous year, when 20.6 million students were enrolled as undergraduates.

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.

In 2022, about **** million male students were enrolled in degree-granting postsecondary institutions as undergraduates. This is compared to **** million female undergraduate students who were enrolled in that same year. By 2031, these figures are projected to increase to **** million and *** million respectively.

In 2022, there were approximately 107,700 students with American Indian or Alaskan Native heritage enrolled at a university in the United States. This is a slight increase from the previous year, when there were 106,600 students with American Indian or Alaska Native heritage enrolled in postsecondary education.

In 2029, the projected number of White high school students enrolled in four-year colleges in the United States was around 1,913,800, a decrease when compared to 2,266,000 in 2019. For Hispanic high school students, however, the projected number of those enrolled in college in 2029 was approximately 620,000, an increase from 607,400 in 2019.

Number of Businesses statistics on the Colleges & Universities industry in United States

Graph and download economic data for Consumer Unit Characteristics: Percent Black or African American by Highest Education: Less Than College Graduate: Total (CXU980270LB1402M) from 2012 to 2023 about no college, consumer unit, secondary schooling, secondary, African-American, education, percent, and USA.

In 2021, there were about 2.73 million students enrolled in private nonprofit institutions in the United States, as compared to 777,430 in private for-profit institutions. The number of students enrolled in private nonprofit institutions decreased slightly from the previous year, when about 2.74 million students were enrolled.

In the fall of 2022, about 81,360 students who were enrolled exclusively in distance education courses in postsecondary institutions were located outside of the United States. This is compared to around 3.13 million students who were located in the same state as the institution, but enrolled in exclusively distance education courses. This high level of enrollment in distance learning courses is due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

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.

This statistic shows the number of colleges or universities applied to by current and prospective college students in the United States in 2015. In 2015, about 31 percent of currently enrolled respondents had applied to only one higher education institution in the United States.

Graph and download economic data for Expenditures: Apparel and Services by Highest Education: Less Than College Graduate: Total (CXUAPPARELLB1402M) from 2012 to 2023 about no college, secondary schooling, secondary, apparel, expenditures, education, services, and USA.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to investigate the variables that best predicted Transfronterizx college students’ sense of on-campus belonging in higher education at the San Diego-Tijuana borderlands. To identify the variables that predicted students’ on-campus sense of belonging, this study also examined their demographic characteristics, student characteristics, transborder interactions, and beliefs about their campus climate. A total of 100 Transfronterizx students (58% female and 42% male) from a four-year higher education institution in the Southwestern region of the United States participated in this study. PARTICIPANTS The data for this study was collected during the fall 2015 academic year. A total of 100 students (58% female, 42% male) from a four-year higher education institution located in a border town in the southwestern region of the United States participated in this study. Of these, 81 (81%) were undergraduates, and 19 (19%) were master's students. The mean age of participants was 23.66 years (SD = 5.19), with a range of 18 to 50 years. Overall, 9,000 undergraduate and 2,000 graduate Latinx students were contacted via email to participate in the study. A total of 130 participants completed the questionnaire. However, responses from students who had already graduated or were not living a transborder life during the study period were excluded from the analysis and findings. As a result, only 100 students were included in the final sample. SITE The recruitment site for this study was a Hispanic-serving, four-year public higher education institution located in a border town in the southwestern region of the United States. The campus is situated in close proximity to the U.S.-Mexico international border, and campus leaders have engaged in various binational collaboration efforts with non-profit organizations and higher education institutions in Mexico. This institution was selected as the recruitment site due to its proximity to the U.S.-Mexico international border. At the time of this study, the university served approximately 32,000 students. However, there is no record of the number of students who attend the campus and live a transborder life in the U.S.-Mexico region. Researchers explain that, due to the nature of the Transborder population—where many members have dual citizenships and dual domiciles—it is difficult to track the exact number of students who are part of the U.S.-Mexico Transfronterizx community (Chavez Montaño, 2006). PROCEDURES AND RECRUITMENT The methodological procedure for this study was descriptive in nature. The recommended sample size for a descriptive study is approximately 100 participants for each major subgroup (Mertens, 2015). In line with this recommendation, 100 students from the higher education institution mentioned above participated in the study. Upon receiving Institutional Review Board (IRB) approval, the consent form and data collection instruments were uploaded to the Qualtrics system for participants to access. A Qualtrics link to the consent form and data collection instruments was included in a recruitment email sent to students via social media outlets, student clubs, and campus organizations. A total of 130 students from the higher education institution completed the questionnaire; however, 30 responses were excluded because the students did not meet the participant requirements. As a result, only 100 students were included in this study. INSTRUMENT The researcher collected quantitative responses about the transborder experiences of college students who live a transborder life through a 30-item questionnaire to address the first and second sub-research questions of this study: (1) What are the demographic and student characteristics of Transfronterizx college students from the U.S.-Mexico Southwest Border Region? and (2) What are Transfronterizx college students’ transborder characteristics and belief levels about living a transborder life?To capture students’ demographic characteristics, the questionnaire included nominal questions about students’ age, race, ethnicity, cultural identification, and academic experiences. It also included nominal questions about students’ transborder interactions, the circumstances that led them to live a transborder life, and their current reasons for continuing to do so. Additionally, two ordinal items measured students’ beliefs about living a transborder life using a Likert scale ranging from 1 = strongly disagree to 4 = strongly agree. The researcher administered the following subscales from the National Survey of Hispanic Students (NSHS) (Hurtado & Carter, 1997) to address the third and fourth sub-research questions of this study: Sense of Belonging to Campus (SBC), Experienced Discrimination-Exclusion (EDE), and Perceptions of Campus Racial-Ethnic Tension (PCRET). These sub-research questions were: (3) What are Transfronterizx college students’ belief levels about their sense of belonging, experiences...

In the fall of 2022, over *** million college students were enrolled exclusively in distance education courses through postsecondary institutions in the United States. A further **** million students were enrolled in at least one distance education course in that year. This high level of enrollment in distance education courses is due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of the 2023/24 academic year, graduates from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) had a starting salary of 110,200 U.S. dollars, and a mid-career salary of 196,900 U.S. dollars. Top universities in the United States One of the top universities in the United States, Harvey Mudd College, is located in Claremont, California. Not only do graduates earn a high salaries after graduation, they also pay the most. In the academic year of 2020-2021, Harvey Mudd College was one of the most expensive school by total annual cost. The best university in the United States in 2021 belonged to the University of California, Berkeley. The Ivy League The Ivy League is a group of eight private universities in the Northeastern United States. It is not only a collegiate athletic conference, but also a group of highly respected academic institutions. They are usually regarded as the best eight universities in the United States and the world. They are extremely selective with their admissions process. However, these universities are extremely expensive to attend. Despite the high price tag, students who graduate from Princeton University have the highest early career salary out of all Ivy League attendees in 2021. This is compared to the overall expected starting salaries of recent college graduates across the United States, which was less than 35,000 U.S. dollars.

As of February 1, ********* applications were submitted to the most selective higher education institutions, who admit less than 25 percent of their applicants, during the 2023/24 academic year in the United States. In comparison, only ******* applications had been submitted to highly selective institutions who admit between 25 and 49 percent of their applicants.

The Educational Services sector comprises 13 subsectors of the US economy, ranging from public schools to testing and educational support services. Primary, secondary and postsecondary schools alone generate 92.0% of the sector's revenue. Most of these institutions rely entirely on government funding, and nearly three-quarters of the educational services revenue comes from public schools and public universities. Accordingly, strong federal, state and local support for all levels of education has driven revenue upward over the past five years. Expanding discretionary budgets made private schools and higher education more affordable for students and parents, but the Trump administration's changing policies have brought new complications. Still, substantial funding and skyrocketing investment returns for private nonprofit universities have elevated revenue. Revenue has climbed at a CAGR of 4.6% to an estimated $2.7 trillion through the end of 2025, when revenue will rise by 1.1%. Solid state and local government funding for education has helped support the sector's success despite fluctuating enrollment. Faltering birth rates are leading to lower headcounts in K-12 schools, and ballooning student debt has made many would-be college students skeptical of the return on investment of an expensive degree. While student loan forgiveness efforts slowed a decline in the number of college students, the new presidential administration's end to these efforts has begun to exacerbate price-based and quality-based competition among higher education institutions. President Trump's scrutiny of course curricula has made public funds harder to acquire for schools, and the administration's efforts to close the Department of Education have begun to deter would-be students from attending college. Trends in the domestic economy are set to move in the Educational Services sector's favor over the next five years as prospective students become better able to pay for rising tuition rates and premium education options. Government funding for primary, secondary and postsecondary institutions will continue to escalate through the next period, though lackluster enrollment will temper revenue growth. Public schools, which account for over half the sector's revenue, will continue to post losses and drag down the average profit for educational services. New school choice initiatives, including Texas's new, largest-ever voucher program, will make private schools more affordable for parents. However, heightened oversight and continued efforts to close the Department of Education will remain a significant pain point for many educational services. Overall, revenue is set to climb at a CAGR of 0.8% to $2.8 trillion through the end of 2030.

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the College Corner population distribution across 18 age groups. It lists the population in each age group along with the percentage population relative of the total population for College Corner. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of College Corner by age. For example, using this dataset, we can identify the largest age group in College Corner.

Key observations

The largest age group in College Corner, OH was for the group of age 30 to 34 years years with a population of 37 (11.31%), according to the ACS 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates. At the same time, the smallest age group in College Corner, OH was the 80 to 84 years years with a population of 2 (0.61%). Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2019-2023 5-Year Estimates

Age groups:

• Under 5 years
• 5 to 9 years
• 10 to 14 years
• 15 to 19 years
• 20 to 24 years
• 25 to 29 years
• 30 to 34 years
• 35 to 39 years
• 40 to 44 years
• 45 to 49 years
• 50 to 54 years
• 55 to 59 years
• 60 to 64 years
• 65 to 69 years
• 70 to 74 years
• 75 to 79 years
• 80 to 84 years
• 85 years and over

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age group in consideration
• Population: The population for the specific age group in the College Corner is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the population of each age group as a proportion of College Corner total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for College Corner Population by Age. You can refer the same here

About this dataset

Context

The dataset tabulates the College Place population distribution across 18 age groups. It lists the population in each age group along with the percentage population relative of the total population for College Place. The dataset can be utilized to understand the population distribution of College Place by age. For example, using this dataset, we can identify the largest age group in College Place.

Key observations

The largest age group in College Place, WA was for the group of age 20-24 years with a population of 1,429 (14.67%), according to the 2021 American Community Survey. At the same time, the smallest age group in College Place, WA was the 80-84 years with a population of 130 (1.33%). Source: U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2017-2021 5-Year Estimates.

Content

When available, the data consists of estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey (ACS) 2017-2021 5-Year Estimates.

Age groups:

• Under 5 years
• 5 to 9 years
• 10 to 14 years
• 15 to 19 years
• 20 to 24 years
• 25 to 29 years
• 30 to 34 years
• 35 to 39 years
• 40 to 44 years
• 45 to 49 years
• 50 to 54 years
• 55 to 59 years
• 60 to 64 years
• 65 to 69 years
• 70 to 74 years
• 75 to 79 years
• 80 to 84 years
• 85 years and over

Variables / Data Columns

• Age Group: This column displays the age group in consideration
• Population: The population for the specific age group in the College Place is shown in this column.
• % of Total Population: This column displays the population of each age group as a proportion of College Place total population. Please note that the sum of all percentages may not equal one due to rounding of values.

Good to know

Margin of Error

Data in the dataset are based on the estimates and are subject to sampling variability and thus a margin of error. Neilsberg Research recommends using caution when presening these estimates in your research.

Custom data

If you do need custom data for any of your research project, report or presentation, you can contact our research staff at research@neilsberg.com for a feasibility of a custom tabulation on a fee-for-service basis.

Inspiration

Neilsberg Research Team curates, analyze and publishes demographics and economic data from a variety of public and proprietary sources, each of which often includes multiple surveys and programs. The large majority of Neilsberg Research aggregated datasets and insights is made available for free download at https://www.neilsberg.com/research/.

Recommended for further research

This dataset is a part of the main dataset for College Place Population by Age. You can refer the same here