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The number of college and university students has dropped for five straight years, to about 18 million in the semester just ended, and no upswing is expected until 2023. What growth does lie ahead will come from places where students are most likely to need more financial aid and support. Read more about how universities and colleges are struggling to stem the big drops in enrollment.

Here’s how enrollment will change, by state, through 2031.

SOURCE: Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education

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There are 2.4 million fewer college students than there were five years ago

by Isaac Carey and Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report
July 25, 2017

<h1>There are 2.4 million fewer college students than there were five years ago</h1> <p class="byline">by Isaac Carey and Jon Marcus, The Hechinger Report <br />July 25, 2017</p> <p>The number of college and university students has dropped for five straight years, to about 18 million in the semester just ended, and no upswing is expected until 2023. What growth does lie ahead will come from places where students are most likely to need more financial aid and support. <a href="https://hechingerreport.org/universities-colleges-struggle-stem-big-drops-enrollment/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Read more about how universities and colleges are struggling to stem the big drops in enrollment.</a><br /> <strong><br /> Here’s how enrollment will change, by state, through 2031.</strong></p> <figure class="wp-block-image"><img src="https://i2.wp.com/public.tableau.com/static/images/KJ/KJ3GYZW6Z/1_rss.png?w=960" alt="Projected Grads in 2031 " /></figure> <div id="viz1501003781514" class="tableauPlaceholder" style="position: relative"><a href="https://hechingerreport.org/universities-colleges-struggle-stem-big-drops-enrollment/"><span style="display: inline-block;width: 0px;overflow: hidden;line-height: 0" data-mce-type="bookmark" class="mce_SELRES_start"></span></a><object></object></div> </p> <p>SOURCE:&nbsp;<a href="http://knocking.wiche.edu/reports/">Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education</a></p> <p>This &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://hechingerreport.org/2-4-million-fewer-college-students-five-years-ago/&quot;&gt;article&lt;/a&gt; first appeared on &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://hechingerreport.org&quot;&gt;The Hechinger Report&lt;/a&gt; and is republished here under a &lt;a target=&quot;_blank&quot; href=&quot;https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/&quot;&gt;Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;img src=&quot;https://i0.wp.com/hechingerreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/cropped-favicon.jpg?fit=150%2C150&amp;amp;ssl=1&quot; style=&quot;width:1em;height:1em;margin-left:10px;&quot;&gt;</p> &lt;img id=&quot;republication-tracker-tool-source&quot; src=&quot;https://hechingerreport.org/?republication-pixel=true&amp;post=34296&amp;amp;ga4=G-03KPHXDF3H&quot; style=&quot;width:1px;height:1px;&quot;&gt;&lt;script&gt; PARSELY = { autotrack: false, onload: function() { PARSELY.beacon.trackPageView({ url: &quot;https://hechingerreport.org/2-4-million-fewer-college-students-five-years-ago/&quot;, urlref: window.location.href }); } } &lt;/script&gt; &lt;script id=&quot;parsely-cfg&quot; src=&quot;//cdn.parsely.com/keys/hechingerreport.org/p.js&quot;&gt;&lt;/script&gt;

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