Fall enrollment and number of degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by control and religious affiliation of institution: Selected years, 1980 through 2021

(26KB)

Table 303.90.Fall enrollment and number of degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by control and religious affiliation of institution: Selected years, 1980 through 2021
Control and religious affiliation of institution	Total fall enrollment						Enrollment, fall 2021					Number of institutions¹
	1980	1990	2000	2010	2019	2020	Total	Full-time		Part-time		Number of institutions¹
	1980	1990	2000	2010	2019	2020	Total	Males	Females	Males	Females	1980	1990	2000	2010	2021
1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17
All institutions	12,096,895	13,818,637	15,312,289	21,019,438	19,630,178	19,027,410	18,659,851	4,888,601	6,441,670	2,880,875	4,448,705	3,226	3,501	4,056	4,589	3,893
Public institutions	9,457,394	10,844,717	11,752,786	15,142,171	14,503,647	13,884,456	13,543,524	3,365,753	4,239,817	2,391,008	3,546,946	1,493	1,548	1,676	1,652	1,581
Federal	50,989	50,669	16,917	21,610	20,473	20,823	20,644	12,000	6,135	669	1,840	12	17	12	14	14
State	[²]	7,181,380	9,548,090	12,364,881	12,095,124	11,715,161	11,467,984	3,035,642	3,843,460	1,841,492	2,747,390	[²]	978	1,355	1,331	1,272
Local³	[²]	3,508,941	2,078,090	2,542,044	2,187,701	1,960,205	1,867,852	275,111	332,800	516,480	743,461	[²]	523	277	261	253
Other public	9,406,405	103,727	109,689	213,636	200,349	188,267	187,044	43,000	57,422	32,367	54,255	1,481	30	32	46	42
Private institutions	2,639,501	2,973,920	3,559,503	5,877,267	5,126,531	5,142,954	5,116,327	1,522,848	2,201,853	489,867	901,759	1,733	1,953	2,380	2,937	2,312
Independent nonprofit	1,521,614	1,474,818	1,577,242	1,994,900	2,278,214	2,266,673	2,304,362	747,050	1,004,025	205,036	348,251	795	709	729	736	776
For-profit	111,714	213,693	450,084	2,022,785	991,159	1,041,906	1,003,223	214,612	413,413	106,796	268,402	164	322	724	1,310	687
Religiously affiliated⁴	1,006,173	1,285,409	1,532,177	1,859,582	1,857,158	1,834,375	1,808,742	561,186	784,415	178,035	285,106	774	922	927	891	849
Advent Christian Church	143	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	1	---	---	---	---
African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church	1,091	88	34	1,536	1,440	1,106	1,187	589	515	42	41	3	1	1	3	3
African Methodist Episcopal	4,541	3,220	5,980	2,674	5,433	4,299	4,878	1,312	1,343	1,041	1,182	6	5	6	5	6
American Baptist	6,131	10,800	15,410	15,120	13,024	13,377	12,409	3,938	4,340	1,542	2,589	11	15	17	18	14
American Evangelical Lutheran Church	---	---	743	1,340	1,476	1,499	1,468	628	764	29	47	---	---	1	1	1
American Lutheran and Lutheran Church in America	3,092	---	1,460	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	3	---	1	---	---
American Lutheran	21,608	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	13	---	---	---	---
Assemblies of God Church	7,814	8,307	14,272	15,806	22,090	21,253	21,049	5,625	7,967	3,278	4,179	10	11	14	16	15
Baptist	38,231	99,510	107,610	174,538	127,696	130,385	128,370	36,163	51,208	18,795	22,204	33	69	68	69	57
Brethren Church	3,925	958	2,088	8,506	7,048	6,348	6,848	1,827	2,602	1,179	1,240	3	3	3	3	2
Brethren in Christ Church	1,301	2,239	2,797	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	1	1	1	---	---
Christian and Missionary Alliance Church	1,705	2,519	5,278	6,455	6,190	6,026	6,096	1,568	2,135	991	1,402	3	4	4	4	4
Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)	14,913	30,397	35,984	52,839	46,725	44,605	42,930	13,806	20,325	3,408	5,391	12	18	16	18	19
Christian Churches and Churches of Christ	1,342	2,263	7,277	10,074	9,272	8,631	7,861	2,786	2,683	1,110	1,282	7	8	18	18	15
Christian Methodist Episcopal	2,486	2,174	1,502	4,817	3,663	3,299	3,298	1,579	1,501	120	98	4	4	1	3	3
Christian Reformed Church	5,408	4,488	5,999	5,625	5,412	5,214	5,290	2,177	2,280	406	427	3	2	3	3	3
Church of Christ (Scientist)	2,773	2,557	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	6	8	---	---	---
Church of God of Prophecy	---	249	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	1	---	---	---
Church of God	6,082	5,627	12,540	16,731	15,734	15,951	15,240	3,870	6,468	2,092	2,810	9	9	7	7	9
Church of New Jerusalem	170	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	1	---	---	---	---
Church of the Brethren	8,482	4,463	4,187	6,154	4,076	3,985	3,682	1,823	1,701	67	91	6	5	4	5	4
Church of the Nazarene	11,716	10,779	16,661	21,144	23,136	21,908	20,930	5,782	8,886	2,071	4,191	10	9	12	10	10
Churches of Christ	9,343	14,611	30,140	35,538	35,823	36,661	37,577	10,553	15,912	3,672	7,440	9	19	19	17	17
Cumberland Presbyterian	594	746	1,112	4,652	4,775	4,184	4,232	1,169	1,116	760	1,187	2	2	2	2	2
Episcopal Church, Reformed	67	---	---	---	1,123	1,187	1,200	49	303	121	727	1	---	---	---	2
Evangelical Christian	---	---	---	---	90,246	97,970	99,455	23,013	33,729	17,874	24,839	---	---	---	---	4
Evangelical Congregational Church	80	88	148	153	161	179	180	56	25	63	36	1	1	1	1	1
Evangelical Covenant Church of America	1,401	1,035	2,387	3,233	2,987	2,924	2,827	754	1,129	384	560	1	1	1	1	2
Evangelical Free Church of America	833	2,355	4,022	2,926	1,932	1,626	1,467	474	293	445	255	1	2	3	2	2
Evangelical Lutheran Church	743	49,210	49,085	56,162	51,199	49,488	47,710	19,114	24,535	1,521	2,540	3	33	34	33	27
Free Methodist	5,543	5,902	7,323	12,270	10,411	10,048	9,407	2,429	5,410	463	1,105	5	3	4	5	5
Free Will Baptist Church	1,132	1,177	2,378	528	827	743	711	281	209	100	121	4	3	4	3	4
Friends United Meeting	1,109	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	1	---	---	---	---
Friends	5,157	5,844	10,898	13,876	10,814	10,543	10,132	3,479	4,527	748	1,378	5	6	8	7	7
General Baptist	---	---	---	---	1,435	1,241	867	316	326	109	116	---	---	---	---	1
General Conference Mennonite Church	820	1,243	1,059	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	2	2	1	---	---
Greek Orthodox	204	148	132	220	365	375	385	215	132	21	17	1	1	1	1	2
Interdenominational	1,254	11,103	9,788	33,778	40,030	40,196	39,963	11,660	16,226	5,969	6,108	4	17	14	31	32
Jewish	5,738	12,217	14,182	12,755	14,847	15,976	16,288	12,165	2,729	377	1,017	24	63	62	36	36
Latter-Day Saints	39,172	42,274	44,680	53,514	78,488	85,951	84,673	24,977	27,097	13,872	18,727	4	4	4	4	4
Lutheran Church--Missouri Synod	11,727	13,827	18,866	28,255	35,856	30,305	27,710	6,463	10,154	3,954	7,139	15	14	13	12	9
Lutheran Church in America	23,877	5,796	4,322	8,240	5,661	5,192	4,882	1,799	2,619	110	354	20	5	2	3	2
Mennonite Brethren Church	1,344	1,864	2,390	4,136	4,942	4,637	4,212	850	1,471	504	1,387	3	3	3	3	2
Mennonite Church	4,008	2,859	3,553	4,263	3,559	3,580	3,474	1,208	1,530	226	510	6	5	5	6	6
Missionary Church Inc	487	699	1,647	2,152	1,450	1,362	1,339	408	651	91	189	1	1	1	1	1
Moravian Church	2,434	2,511	2,939	3,095	3,304	3,241	3,056	766	1,545	162	583	2	2	2	2	2
Multiple Protestant denominations	5,526	211	4,690	5,350	4,531	4,307	4,042	820	1,231	1,056	935	8	1	7	6	6
Nondenominational	---	---	---	---	1,500	1,576	2,586	908	1,031	396	251	---	---	---	---	7
North American Baptist	155	---	124	120	419	508	739	79	77	372	211	1	---	1	1	1
Original Free Will Baptist	---	---	---	3,855	2,805	2,536	2,288	519	824	232	713	---	---	---	1	1
Pentecostal Holiness Church	767	566	976	1,272	1,476	1,369	1,400	655	530	110	105	3	3	2	3	2
Presbyterian	---	---	---	---	3,255	3,186	3,165	1,104	1,590	150	321	---	---	---	---	3
Presbyterian USA	47,144	77,700	78,950	85,719	78,054	76,415	74,484	26,788	35,836	3,623	8,237	57	70	64	58	54
Presbyterian Church in America	---	1,877	4,499	2,071	1,511	1,504	1,548	513	523	306	206	---	1	5	2	2
Protestant Episcopal	5,396	4,559	5,479	5,006	3,817	3,768	4,013	1,651	1,607	373	382	12	9	12	11	8
Protestant, other	4,072	38,136	30,116	13,450	18,796	18,637	18,552	4,928	6,532	3,236	3,856	11	44	34	23	26
Reformed Church in America	2,713	5,525	6,002	6,555	6,093	6,155	6,289	2,256	2,958	453	622	4	4	5	5	5
Reformed Presbyterian Church	2,014	1,556	2,355	2,982	2,458	2,292	2,140	964	751	231	194	4	2	2	3	2
Reorganized Latter-Day Saints Church	4,274	4,793	3,390	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	---	2	1	2	---	---
Roman Catholic	422,842	530,585	636,336	751,091	696,264	681,969	674,746	208,462	316,273	51,111	98,900	229	239	239	237	219
Russian Orthodox	47	38	106	60	85	79	79	58	6	14	1	1	1	1	1	1
Seventh-Day Adventists	19,168	15,771	19,223	25,430	22,408	21,736	20,819	6,291	9,333	1,844	3,351	11	11	13	14	13
Southern Baptist	85,281	49,493	54,275	49,936	54,340	54,706	52,957	15,295	19,998	7,561	10,103	54	29	32	22	22
Undenominational	---	6,758	23,573	27,748	34,748	34,404	34,198	7,133	11,334	5,892	9,839	---	14	16	16	18
Unitarian Universalist	87	82	132	166	162	170	145	26	53	14	52	2	2	2	2	2
United Brethren Church	545	601	938	1,260	1,384	1,391	1,350	404	699	101	146	1	1	1	1	1
United Church of Christ	14,169	20,175	23,709	20,537	15,529	15,575	14,547	4,744	6,257	1,289	2,257	16	18	18	17	14
United Methodist	127,099	148,851	171,109	206,744	188,603	181,261	181,734	64,868	87,676	10,794	18,396	91	96	100	96	86
Wesleyan Church	3,583	5,311	11,128	20,670	18,884	18,091	16,823	4,636	10,101	604	1,482	5	4	4	6	8
Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod	808	931	1,660	1,677	2,142	2,134	2,067	731	864	193	279	1	3	2	2	2
Other religiously affiliated	462	5,743	2,534	4,778	5,244	5,111	4,748	1,682	1,945	363	758	1	9	4	11	11
---Not available.
¹Counts of institutions in this table may be lower than reported in other tables because counts in this table exclude institutions reporting enrollment data through a parent school.
²Included under "Other public."
³Includes public institutions whose primary control was territorial, school district, county, city, or special district.
⁴Religious affiliation as reported by institution. All religiously affiliated institutions in this table are private nonprofit.
NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Data for 1980 and 1990 are for institutions of higher education, while later data are for degree-granting institutions. Degree-granting institutions grant associate's or higher degrees and participate in Title IV federal financial aid programs. The degree-granting classification is very similar to the earlier higher education classification, but it includes more 2-year colleges and excludes a few higher education institutions that did not grant degrees. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Higher Education General Information Survey (HEGIS), "Fall Enrollment in Institutions of Higher Education" and "Institutional Characteristics" surveys, 1980; Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), "Fall Enrollment Survey" (IPEDS-EF:90) and "Institutional Characteristics Survey" (IPEDS-IC:90); and IPEDS Spring 2001 through Spring 2022, Fall Enrollment component. (This table was prepared May 2023.)

2022 Tables and Figures

All Years of Tables and Figures

Most Recent Full Issue of the Digest

Download Excel Excel format

(26KB)