Persistence and Retention Report

June 25, 2026

The Persistence and Retention report series examines early college enrollment outcomes for beginning postsecondary students, tracking both first spring and second fall persistence and retention rates. Students are considered persisted if they remain enrolled at any institution and retained if they remain at their starting institution — either in the spring term following initial enrollment (first spring) or in the fall of their second academic year (second fall). In both timeframes, students who complete a credential before the applicable term are also included in the corresponding rates. The report is designed to help institutions understand trends and patterns in this important early success indicator, and identify disparities by institutional type, state, degree level, starting enrollment intensity, major field, and student demographic characteristics such as age, gender, and race and ethnicity. The report includes a data dashboard to enable viewers to analyze, visualize, and interact with the longitudinal data, which are also available for download.

Highlights

Of the nearly 2.62 million students who entered college in fall 2024, 85.8 percent continued their enrollment into the spring 2025 term. By fall 2025, a full year later, 77.1 percent were still enrolled. These rates were virtually unchanged (+0.1 percentage points [pp] and +0.3pp, respectively) compared to the fall 2023 entering cohort.
Most fall 2024 starters were still enrolled at their starting institution in spring 2025, with an 83.2 percent retention rate for the cohort. Only 2.6 percent continued their enrollment at another institution in their first spring term. A year after entry, in fall 2025, 69.1 percent of the cohort were still enrolled at their starting institution, while 8.0 percent had transferred to another institution.
Part-time starters who entered college in fall 2024 saw a decade-high second fall persistence rate of 54.1 percent, up 1.3pp compared to the fall 2023 cohort. Persistence and retention rates for part-time students increased in all sectors, with the largest increases among four-year institutions.
Persistence and retention rates vary across racial and ethnic groups. In the fall 2024 cohort, second fall persistence rates ranged from 65.7 to 90.0 percent, with a national rate of 77.1 percent compared to 74.5 percent for Hispanic students, 70.0 percent for Black students, and 65.7 percent for Native American students. Second fall retention rates showed a similar pattern, at 69.1 percent nationally and 66.9, 59.6, and 56.5 percent for these groups, respectively. Differences observed in prior cohorts remain present in the fall 2024 data.
Black and Hispanic students in the fall 2024 cohort posted notable one-year gains in second fall persistence and retention, showing the highest second fall persistence and retention rates over the last decade for each group (Hispanic persistence: 74.5%, +1.5pp; Hispanic retention: 66.9%, +1.4pp; Black persistence: 70.0%, +1.4pp; Black retention: 59.6%, +1.0pp). Native American starters in fall 2024 also showed notable one-year gains in second fall persistence (65.7% + 1.1pp) and retention (56.5%, +1.1pp).
Among older starters, those aged 21 to 24 saw increases in second fall persistence (52.6%, +1.4pp) and retention (48.5%, +1.3pp), while those aged 25 or older saw declines (43.6%, -1.0pp and 41.0%, -0.9pp, respectively). This contributed to a widening gap in persistence and retention between starters in these age groups that began to emerge over the last six years. Younger starters, those aged 20 or younger, saw little movement in their persistence and retention rates for the fall 2024 cohort.
Among starting fall 2024 bachelor’s degree students in the top ten major fields, those in Engineering programs persisted into a second fall of study at the highest rate (93.1%), while those in Computer Science persisted at the lowest rate (85.0%). For entering associate degree students in the most popular majors, those in Biology had the highest second fall persistence rate (74.1%), while those in Security and Protective Services had the lowest (57.8%). Starting certificate-seekers in Liberal Arts had the highest persistence into their second fall (64.9%), while those in Security and Protective Services had the lowest (54.0%).
The District of Columbia, Rhode Island, and Connecticut have the highest second-fall persistence rates for the fall 2024 entering cohort at 90.9% (-1.2pp), 85.7% (+0.6pp) and 84.9% (+0.7pp), respectively. Most states (35) saw little change in second fall persistence rates for the fall 2024 entering cohort, with changes of no more than one percentage point compared to the fall 2023 cohort.