Current Term Enrollment Estimates: Fall 2024
Expanded Edition
January 23, 2025
Current Term Enrollment Estimates (CTEE) series is published every January and May, providing final enrollment estimates for the fall and spring terms. It provides national enrollment estimates by credential type, institutional sector and other characteristics (e.g., locale, selectivity), enrollment intensity, student demographics (e.g., age, race/ethnicity, gender), and major field, as well as state-level enrollment estimates. Enrollment estimates are adjusted for Clearinghouse data coverage rates by institutional sector, state, and year.
The Current Term Enrollment Estimates report differs from the Stay Informed report series which is designed to quantify the effects of COVID-19 by analyzing year-over-year percent change in unadjusted preliminary data for fixed panels of institutions that reported data in the same month each year across all comparison years. Hence, enrollment estimates may differ between the CTEE and the Stay Informed reports due to the difference in methodology and institution coverage. Postsecondary institutions actively submitting enrollment data to the Clearinghouse account for 97 percent of the total enrollments at Title IV, degree-granting institutions in the U.S.
The expanded edition of the fall report that started in 2023, features analyses of student’s neighborhood income background, enrollment at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), public 2-year enrollment by transfer or vocational program focus, and trends by institution locale, along with more detailed information on enrollment by credential level, age, and major field. The fall 2024 report includes a new indicator capturing enrollment trends across institutions by the share of the undergraduate population that receives Pell Grants as well as a separate age category capturing 18-year-old freshmen. The dashboard-based report allows users to explore the longitudinal data through interactive visualizations. Specific major family-related data are available in the Data Appendix dashboard.
The fall 2024 CTEE: Special Analysis of 18-year-old Freshmen dashboard provides a focused look at 18-year-old freshmen who most likely have graduated from high school in Spring 2024 and entered college immediately after.
Fall 2024 Highlights
- Postsecondary enrollment rebounded above pre-COVID levels (+0.4%, +83,000 from 2019).
- Total postsecondary enrollment is up 4.5 percent this fall (+817,000; Figure 1.2). Undergraduate enrollment neared 16 million, just 1.0 percent below 2019 levels (+4.7%, +716,000 this fall), while graduate enrollment grew to 3.2 million (+3.3%, +100,000).
- Undergraduate enrollment increased across sectors with community colleges (Public 2-year and Public PABs combined) in particular, seeing a 5.9 percent increase, or 325,000 additional students.
- Undergraduate certificate program enrollment grew for the fourth consecutive year, up 9.9 percent in fall 2024 (+101,000; Figure 1.3) — enrollments are now 28.5% above 2019 levels. Enrollment in Bachelor’s and associate degree programs also increased (+2.9% and +6.3%, respectively) but remain below 2019 levels.
- Freshmen enrollment grew 5.5 percent this fall (+130,000; see Figure 3.1). Building on last fall’s increases, the growth was strongest at community colleges, which added 63,000 freshmen (+7.1%). Overall 18-year-old freshmen also saw enrollment gains this fall (+3.4%, +59,000).
- Public 2-year institutions with high vocational program focus saw double-digit growth for the second year in a row (+13.6%; Figure 4.4). These schools now encompass 19.5 percent of public 2-year enrollment, up from 15.3 percent in 2019.
- Enrollment increased across all regions this fall (Figure 5.4). Institutions in the Northeast saw a 4.7 percent increase, the first gains since prior to the pandemic. The South (+4.7%) and West (+4.6%) saw similar gains, followed by the Midwest (+3.1%).
Access the Major Fields Data Appendix (dashboard), Special Analysis of 18-year-old freshmen (dashboard), and download the Methodological Notes (pdf) below. Scroll down for the interactive data dashboard.
Navigate using the tabs at the top of the dashboard to see details for different institutions and students.
The CTEE Expanded Edition report is supported in part by the Institute of Education Sciences, U.S. Department of Education, through grant R305X220022 to Teachers College, Columbia University. This project is part of the Accelerating Recovery in Community Colleges (ARCC) Network. The opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not represent the views of the Institute or the U.S. Department of Education.
Past Reports
COVID-19 Supplement for Spring 2020 (June 2020): Full Report + Data Dashboard