News

Change in Percentage of Undergraduate Students Who Were 25 and Older, 1987 to 2015

Almanac 2017

August 13, 2017

The share of undergraduate students who were 25 and older has dropped since 2011, and has dropped even more significantly since the 1990s. In the fall of 2015, the percentage of undergraduates who were 25 and older fell below 30 percent for the first time since complete data were collected beginning in 1987.

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Year	Number	All age-known undergrads 25 and older
1987	3,692,383	35.4%
1991	3,913,461	35.5%
1993	4,219,110	36.2%
1995	4,203,571	36.2%
1997	4,118,292	34.8%
1999	3,927,267	32.5%
2001	4,177,081	32.0%
2003	4,413,175	31.6%
2005	4,450,638	30.8%
2007	4,512,004	30.1%
2009	5,266,949	31.5%
2011	5,532,134	31.9%
2013	5,202,186	30.4%
2015	4,888,486	28.8%

Note: Data cover all undergraduate students who enrolled at degree-granting institutions in the United States that are eligible to participate in the Title IV federal student-aid program during the years covered by the data. No data were available from 1989. Students whose age was unknown were subtracted from the totals before percentages were calculated.

Source: Chronicle analysis of U.S. Department of Education data