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.

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 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.

Number of home institution students attending a SUNY campus by level (Undergraduate/Graduate) and load status (full-time, part-time) by institution based on Fall term enrollment.

In 2022, about 6.57 million male students were enrolled in degree-granting postsecondary institutions as undergraduates. This is compared to 8.82 million female undergraduate students who were enrolled in that same year. By 2031, these figures are projected to increase to 7.12 million and 9.7 million respectively.

This dataset contains the total annual unduplicated enrollment headcount and percentages by race and gender for undergraduate and graduate students at public community colleges and state universities in Massachusetts since 2014.

This dataset is 1 of 2 datasets that is also published in the interactive Annual Enrollment dashboard on the Department of Higher Education Data Center:

Public Postsecondary Annual Enrollment Public Postsecondary Annual Enrollment by Race and Gender

Related datasets: Public Postsecondary Fall Enrollment Public Postsecondary Fall Enrollment by Race and Gender

Notes: - Data appear as reported to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. - Annual enrollment refers to a 12 month enrollment period over one fiscal year (July 1 through June 30). - Figures published by DHE may differ slightly from figures published by other institutions and organizations due to differences in timing of publication, data definitions, and calculation logic. - Data for the University of Massachusetts are not included due to unique reporting requirements. See Fall Enrollment for HEIRS data on UMass enrollment. -The most common measure of enrollment is headcount of enrolled students. Annual headcount enrollment is unduplicated, meaning any individual student is only counted once per institution and fiscal year, even if they are enrolled in multiple terms. Enrollment can also be measured as full-time equivalent (FTE) students, a calculation based on the sum of credits carried by all enrolled students. In a fiscal year, 30 undergraduate credits = 1 undergraduate FTE, and 24 graduate credits = 1 graduate FTE at a state university.

As of fall 2021, the University of Central Florida had the largest on-campus population in the United States, with 60,075 undergraduates. Texas A&M University, College Station had the second largest on-campus population in that year, with 53,876 undergrads.

Data from the Ministry of Colleges and Universities' College Enrolment Statistical Reporting system.

Provides aggregated key enrolment data for college students, such as:

• Fall term headcount enrolment by campus, credential pursued and level of study
• Fall term headcount enrolment by program and Classification of Instructional Program
• Fall term headcount enrolment by student status in Canada and country of citizenship by institution
• Fall term headcount enrolment by student demographics (e.g., gender, age, first language)

To protect privacy, numbers are suppressed in categories with less than 10 students.

Related

• College enrolments - 1996 to 2011
• University enrolment
• Enrolment by grade in secondary schools
• School enrolment by gender
• Second language course enrolment
• Course enrolment in secondary schools
• Enrolment by grade in elementary schools

This dataset provides student headcount enrollment at the University of Iowa, Iowa State University, and the University of Northern Iowa for Fall semesters starting in 2012. The data includes Iowa residents and non-resident (out-of-state and international) enrollment for undergraduate, graduate and professional students. Enrollment counts exclude post-doctoral scholars and medical residents as they are not enrolled in coursework.

This dataset contains the total annual FTE and unduplicated headcount enrollment for undergraduate and graduate students at public community colleges and state universities in Massachusetts since 2014.

This dataset is 1 of 2 datasets that is also published in the interactive Annual Enrollment dashboard on the Department of Higher Education Data Center:

Public Postsecondary Annual Enrollment Public Postsecondary Annual Enrollment by Race and Gender

Related datasets: Public Postsecondary Fall Enrollment Public Postsecondary Fall Enrollment by Race and Gender

Notes: - Data appear as reported to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. - Annual enrollment refers to a 12 month enrollment period over one fiscal year (July 1 through June 30). - Figures published by DHE may differ slightly from figures published by other institutions and organizations due to differences in timing of publication, data definitions, and calculation logic. - Data for the University of Massachusetts are not included due to unique reporting requirements. See Fall Enrollment for HEIRS data on UMass enrollment. -The most common measure of enrollment is headcount of enrolled students. Annual headcount enrollment is unduplicated, meaning any individual student is only counted once per institution and fiscal year, even if they are enrolled in multiple terms. Enrollment can also be measured as full-time equivalent (FTE) students, a calculation based on the sum of credits carried by all enrolled students. In a fiscal year, 30 undergraduate credits = 1 undergraduate FTE, and 24 graduate credits = 1 graduate FTE at a state university.

In 2021, there were approximately 9.5 million full-time and 5.95 million part-time students enrolled in university in the United States. By 2031, these figures are projected to increase to 10.26 million and 6.56 million respectively. The total past and forecasted enrollment of students in U.S. colleges can be accessed here.

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.

This table contains 11476 series, with data for years 1992 - 2008 (not all combinations necessarily have data for all years). This table contains data described by the following dimensions (Not all combinations are available): Geography (11 items: Canada; Prince Edward Island; Nova Scotia; Newfoundland and Labrador ...), Registration status (3 items: Total; registration status; Full-time student; Part-time student ...), Program level (11 items: Total; program level; Trade/vocational and preparatory training certificate or diploma; Community college certificate or diploma and other community college level; Undergraduate level ...), Classification of Instructional Programs, Primary Grouping (CIP_PG) (14 items: Visual and performing arts and communications technologies; Total; instructional programs; Education; Personal improvement and leisure ...), Sex (3 items: Both sexes; Females; Males ...).

In 2023, more than 4.9 million undergraduate students in Brazil were enrolled in distance learning programs. Meanwhile, the number of students enrolled in on-site programs in Brazil reached approximately 5.06 million in the same year, following the negative trend experienced since 2015. This is about one percent less than the 5.11 million students recorded the previous year. Moreover, the number of new students enrolled in distance learning programs in Brazilian universities has increased lately.

Trends in enrollment at City University of New York (CUNY) by enrollment category (transfers, freshmen, graduates, undergraduates, total).

This dataset contains the total Fall enrollment headcount and FTE for undergraduate and graduate students at all public Massachusetts institutions of higher education since 2014.

This dataset is 1 of 2 datasets that is also published in the interactive Fall Enrollment dashboard on the Department of Higher Education Data Center:

Public Postsecondary Fall Enrollment Public Postsecondary Fall Enrollment by Race and Gender

Related datasets: Public Postsecondary Annual Enrollment Public Postsecondary Annual Enrollment by Race and Gender

Notes: - Data appear as reported to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education. - Figures published here may vary from those of individual institutions due to differences in calculation methodologies.

Campuses which comprise the State University of New York (SUNY) System. Highlights information on Undergraduate and Graduate enrollment as well as some program area offerings.

This dataset contains the total first-year retention rates and counts (Fall to Fall) for new first-time, full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate students, disaggregated by gender. It covers all public community colleges and state universities in Massachusetts, and the University of Massachusetts since 2013.

This dataset is 1 of 3 datasets that is also published in the interactive Retention of First-Time, Full-Time Students dashboard on the Department of Higher Education Data Center:

Public Postsecondary First Year Retention: Summary Public Postsecondary First Year Retention by Race Public Postsecondary First Year Retention by Gender

Definitions: - Retention is characterized when a new first-time, full-time student who was enrolled in their first Fall semester is again enrolled in their second Fall semester. - Adjusted Cohort Count: the number of first-year students in a cohort, excluding those who graduated within the first year. - Retained Any Institution is determined by finding students enrolled in the next Fall at other MA Public Institutions using Massachusetts Department of Higher Education data or elsewhere using NSC data. - Cohort identification: These are the Fall Term Credit Students, identified with a cohort when their current registration = New; their New Student Type = Degree-seeking; and enrollment is full-time with >= 12 credits.

Notes: - To comply with data privacy laws, Bucketing is used as a form of data suppression. If a gender category has <= 6 students, then its data is combined with the next largest gender category and the gender is labeled as "Other." - Data appear as reported to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.

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.

This dataset contains the total first-year retention rates and counts (Fall to Fall) for new first-time, full-time, degree-seeking undergraduate students, disaggregated by race. It covers all public community colleges and state universities in Massachusetts, and the University of Massachusetts since 2013.

This dataset is 1 of 3 datasets that is also published in the interactive Retention of First-Time, Full-Time Students dashboard on the Department of Higher Education Data Center:

Public Postsecondary First Year Retention: Summary Public Postsecondary First Year Retention by Race Public Postsecondary First Year Retention by Gender

Definitions: - Retention is characterized when a new first-time, full-time student who was enrolled in their first Fall semester is again enrolled in their second Fall semester. - Adjusted Cohort Count: the number of first-year students in a cohort, excluding those who graduated within the first year. - Retained Any Institution is determined by finding students enrolled in the next Fall at other MA Public Institutions using Massachusetts Department of Higher Education data or elsewhere using NSC data. - Cohort identification: These are the Fall Term Credit Students, identified with a cohort when their current registration = New; their New Student Type = Degree-seeking; and enrollment is full-time with >= 12 credits.

Notes: - To comply with data privacy laws, student groups with cohort sizes <= 6 are suppressed. - Data appear as reported to the Massachusetts Department of Higher Education.