August 25, 2025
Total Fall Enrollment in Degree-Granting Institutions, 1960 to 2030 (projected)
Our Back-to-School EPIGraph focuses on total, full-time/part-time fall enrollment in higher education. This fall, the total enrollment is expected to be about 19.5 million students, with 11.9 million full-time and 7.7 million part-time. The highest total enrollment in US history was 21 million in 2010, or about six times the 3.6 million enrollment figure from 1960. After falling to a low of 18.6 million during the pandemic, rates have bounced back and expected to continue to rise modestly through the decade.
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