Enrollment Trends at Bethel

The student population at Bethel University is 2,936 (2,674 undergraduate and 262 graduate students) . The number of students has decreased by 3,382 (53.53%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at Bethel is 91.08% which is decreased by 2,347 over last 10 years. The graduate student population decreased by 1,035 and it has been decreasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 86 male students for every 100 female students, up from 69 in 2015.
1,295 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has decreased by -57.95% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

There are multiple same-named institutes of Bethel University. This page describes a school located in McKenzie, TN. You may want to view a school located in another city and/or state on the Bethel University locations page.

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 4,521 where 2,936 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 3 year-over-year increases and 6 decreases. It peaked at 6,318 students in 2016 and was lowest at 2,936 in 2025. Overall, enrollment dropped from 6,318 to 2,936 students, a net loss of 3,382 (53.5%).

The following table and chart illustrate the changes in student population by gender at Bethel University since 2015.

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	6,318	5,021	2,111	2,910	1,297	464	833
2016-17	5,975 -343	4,829 -192	2,044 -67	2,785 -125	1,146 -151	396 -68	750 -83
2017-18	5,779 -196	4,829	2,115 71	2,714 -71	950 -196	351 -45	599 -151
2018-19	5,407 -372	4,560 -269	2,008 -107	2,552 -162	847 -103	301 -50	546 -53
2019-20	3,119 -2,288	2,358 -2,202	1,197 -811	1,161 -1,391	761 -86	263 -38	498 -48
2020-21	4,001 882	3,457 1,099	1,548 351	1,909 748	544 -217	190 -73	354 -144
2021-22	4,011 10	3,446 -11	1,635 87	1,811 -98	565 21	196 6	369 15
2022-23	4,686 675	4,038 592	1,915 280	2,123 312	648 83	238 42	410 41
2023-24	2,974 -1,712	2,719 -1,319	1,291 -624	1,428 -695	255 -393	103 -135	152 -258
2024-25	2,936 -38	2,674 -45	1,259 -32	1,415 -13	262 7	100 -3	162 10
Average	4,521	3,793	1,712	2,081	728	260	467

Bethel University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 3,793 where 2,674 students are attending the Undergraduate school for the academic year 2024-2025. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in Undergraduate enrollment by attending status and gender at Bethel University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	5,021	3,569	1,572	1,997	1,452	539	913
2016-17	4,829	3,474	1,525	1,949	1,355	519	836
2017-18	4,829	3,454	1,605	1,849	1,375	510	865
2018-19	4,560	2,981	1,405	1,576	1,579	603	976
2019-20	2,358	1,638	871	767	720	326	394
2020-21	3,457	2,190	1,073	1,117	1,267	475	792
2021-22	3,446	1,973	1,062	911	1,473	573	900
2022-23	4,038	2,382	1,281	1,101	1,656	634	1,022
2023-24	2,719	1,567	879	688	1,152	412	740
2024-25	2,674	1,479	818	661	1,195	441	754
Average	3,793	3,793	1,209	1,262	3,793	503	819

Bethel University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 728 where 262 students are attending the Graduate school for the academic year 2024-2025. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in Graduate enrollment by attending status and gender at Bethel University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	1,297	1,114	397	717	183	67	116
2016-17	1,146	981	335	646	165	61	104
2017-18	950	695	262	433	255	89	166
2018-19	847	574	199	375	273	102	171
2019-20	761	593	209	384	168	54	114
2020-21	544	484	165	319	60	25	35
2021-22	565	166	47	119	399	149	250
2022-23	648	169	60	109	479	178	301
2023-24	255	233	96	137	22	7	15
2024-25	262	240	96	144	22	4	18
Average	728	728	187	338	728	74	129

Bethel University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 48.77% and the percentage of black students is 28.95% at Bethel University. 2.35% of enrolled students is Asian. Hispanic students comprise 9.20% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 53.94% to 48.77%. Asian enrollment grew from 0.82% to 2.35%. Black student enrollment decreased from 35.80% to 28.95%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 1.79% to 9.20%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.6681 which indicates that moderately diverse. This increased from 0.5804 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Bethel University over the past 11 years (2015-2025).

Year	American Indian or Native American	Asian	Black	Hispanic	Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	White	Two or More Races
Year	2015-16	34	52	2,262	113	11	3,408	54
2016-17	34	49	2,230	114	10	3,169	66
2017-18	39	55	2,153	129	9	3,047	117
2018-19	38	64	1,914	129	7	2,817	209
2019-20	11	17	1,045	68	3	1,615	224
2020-21	25	58	1,189	153	3	2,168	240
2021-22	21	60	1,140	142	4	2,199	201
2022-23	18	61	1,382	218	8	2,517	209
2023-24	8	58	827	234	3	1,480	115
2024-25	9	69	850	270	2	1,432	99
Average	24	54	1,499	157	6	2,385	153

Bethel University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

1,295 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 44% of total students. The number of online students has decreased -57.95% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Bethel University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	6,318	3,080	2,802	436
2016-17	5,975	3,040	2,785	150
2017-18	5,779	2,927	313	2,539
2018-19	5,407	2,438	1,001	1,968
2019-20	3,119	1,582	0	1,537
2020-21	4,001	1,711	41	2,249
2021-22	4,011	1,747	847	1,417
2022-23	4,686	1,728	1,160	1,798
2023-24	2,974	1,310	510	1,154
2024-25	2,936	1,295	604	1,037
Average	4,521	2,086	1,006	1,429

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Enrollment Trends at Bethel

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

Ratings & Review