How Diverse Are Student Populations on College Campuses in the U.S.?

A look race, ethnicity, and gender of students at 3,888 colleges and universities in the fall of 2021, the latest year for which statistics are available from the U.S. Department of Education.

About the Data

The figures are from the Education Department’s Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System. They include undergraduate, graduate, and professional-school students attending full time and part time in the 50 states and Washington, D.C. Only degree-granting institutions eligible to participate in Title IV are included.

The full titles of the categories are: American Indian or Alaska Native; Asian; black or African-American; Hispanic or Latino; Native Hawaiian/Other Pacific Islander; two or more races; and race/ethnicity unknown. Those categories include U.S. citizens and permanent residents. “Nonresident foreign” includes international students who could be of any race. A person can be counted in only one category; Hispanics can be of any race.

Data is for fall enrollment in the given year. Classifications are from the Carnegie Classifications of Institutions of Higher Education. The fall 2021 data uses the 2021 classifications while earlier years use the 2018 version, so institutions may change categories between 2020 and 2021. Colleges defined by as “Associate” may grant some bachelor’s but primarily grant associate’s degrees. Likewise, colleges classified as “Bachelor’s” may grant Associate degrees, but grant primarily Bachelor’s degrees.

“Total minority” is the percentage of all students who are not categorized as white, race unknown, or nonresident. Percentages for all groups except women, nonresident foreign and unknown are the portion of that group of the total excluding non-resident foreign and unknown. Because of rounding, percentages may not add up to 100. Some colleges reported a large number of students in the “race/ethnicity unknown” category. In those cases, all of the other figures should be interpreted with caution.