Did you Know

College has long been pointed to as an effective way for students to continue their academic journeys and set themselves up for rewarding careers and higher earnings.

But college enrollment could be poised to decrease over the next decade-plus.

According to the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education, the number of high school graduates in the United States peaked at roughly 3.9 million in 2025. By 2041, that number is expected to decrease by 13 percent. If those projections prove accurate, there will be roughly 576,000 fewer graduates in 2041, and college enrollments could reflect that dropoff.

That shift could be occurring at the same time as international student enrollment in colleges in the United States declines.

The Institute of International Education reports that international student enrollment in colleges in the United States declined by 1 percent in the fall of 2025, which was driven by a considerable decline in international graduate student enrollment (12 percent).

Analysts point to a wide range of factors affecting current and anticipated declines in college enrollment, and rising tuition fees and increasing student debt are among those variables.