The Number of U.S. Adults With Some College but No Degree Keeps Growing

In the wake of pandemic-related enrollment losses, many colleges have been more focused than ever on recruiting and re-engaging a key student demographic: those who attended college but left without earning a credential or degree. A new report provides some insight on this growing market of former students who might one day re-enroll.

As of July 2021 that population had grown by more than one million from a year earlier to reach 40.4 million, an increase of 3.6 percent, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center. That represents almost one in five people in the United States who are age 18 and older, the report said.

Of the “some college, no credential” students for whom gender data is known, the share of women, at 45.8 percent, was slightly larger than that of men, at 45.3 percent. Forty-four percent of the more than 40 million former students were under 25 when they dropped out of college.

The report highlights two subsets of students on whom colleges can focus their re-enrollment efforts. One group is designated as “potential completers”; they’re the 2.9-million adults who have each amassed what amounts to two years of full-time enrollment over the last decade. The other is “recent stop-outs,” or those who were last enrolled at some point in 2019.

According to the data, potential completers and recent stop-outs were more likely to enroll and to complete a credential within a year after re-enrolling.

For more data on students who went to college but didn’t earn a credential see below: