Enrollment Trends at BHSU

The student population at Black Hills State University is 3,346 (3,198 undergraduate and 148 graduate students) . The number of students has decreased by 1,049 (23.87%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at BHSU is 95.58% which is decreased by 698 over last 10 years. The graduate student population decreased by 351 and it has been decreasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 59 male students for every 100 female students, up from 52 in 2015.
1,315 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 48.25% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 3,810 where 3,346 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 1 year-over-year increase and 8 decreases. It peaked at 4,395 students in 2016 and was lowest at 3,346 in 2025. Overall, enrollment dropped from 4,395 to 3,346 students, a net loss of 1,049 (23.9%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	4,395	3,896	1,391	2,505	499	114	385
2016-17	4,244 -151	3,812 -84	1,421 30	2,391 -114	432 -67	92 -22	340 -45
2017-18	4,178 -66	3,947 135	1,471 50	2,476 85	231 -201	60 -32	171 -169
2018-19	4,035 -143	3,745 -202	1,333 -138	2,412 -64	290 59	82 22	208 37
2019-20	3,858 -177	3,684 -61	1,356 23	2,328 -84	174 -116	61 -21	113 -95
2020-21	3,608 -250	3,413 -271	1,278 -78	2,135 -193	195 21	63 2	132 19
2021-22	3,539 -69	3,346 -67	1,231 -47	2,115 -20	193 -2	66 3	127 -5
2022-23	3,425 -114	3,261 -85	1,193 -38	2,068 -47	164 -29	59 -7	105 -22
2023-24	3,475 50	3,279 18	1,212 19	2,067 -1	196 32	47 -12	149 44
2024-25	3,346 -129	3,198 -81	1,200 -12	1,998 -69	148 -48	47	101 -48
Average	3,810	3,558	1,309	2,250	252	69	183

Black Hills State University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 3,558 where 3,198 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 Black Hills State University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	3,896	2,238	864	1,374	1,658	527	1,131
2016-17	3,812	2,221	843	1,378	1,591	578	1,013
2017-18	3,947	2,195	836	1,359	1,752	635	1,117
2018-19	3,745	2,029	762	1,267	1,716	571	1,145
2019-20	3,684	1,945	699	1,246	1,739	657	1,082
2020-21	3,413	1,794	619	1,175	1,619	659	960
2021-22	3,346	1,697	581	1,116	1,649	650	999
2022-23	3,261	1,602	548	1,054	1,659	645	1,014
2023-24	3,279	1,579	543	1,036	1,700	669	1,031
2024-25	3,198	1,577	530	1,047	1,621	670	951
Average	3,558	3,558	683	1,205	3,558	626	1,044

Black Hills State University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 252 where 148 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 Black Hills State University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	499	29	16	13	470	98	372
2016-17	432	29	9	20	403	83	320
2017-18	231	28	10	18	203	50	153
2018-19	290	33	12	21	257	70	187
2019-20	174	23	4	19	151	57	94
2020-21	195	40	15	25	155	48	107
2021-22	193	28	8	20	165	58	107
2022-23	164	17	9	8	147	50	97
2023-24	196	18	5	13	178	42	136
2024-25	148	14	5	9	134	42	92
Average	252	252	9	17	252	60	167

Black Hills State University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 69.78%. The percentage was 82.03% 10 years ago and BHSU still has a high percentage of white students. 0.87% of enrolled students is Asian and 1.85% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 4.66% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 82.03% to 69.78%. Asian enrollment grew from 0.64% to 0.87%. Black student enrollment increased from 1.48% to 1.85%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 4.28% to 4.66%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.5091 which indicates that somewhat diverse. This increased from 0.3227 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Black Hills State 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	137	28	65	188	9	3,605	168
2016-17	140	35	52	208	5	3,433	176
2017-18	160	34	68	203	4	3,361	185
2018-19	156	36	77	206	1	3,214	172
2019-20	146	35	54	197	5	3,072	178
2020-21	88	29	47	170	4	2,935	143
2021-22	68	32	35	122	3	2,945	120
2022-23	73	28	35	110	3	2,905	70
2023-24	111	26	67	141	3	2,700	64
2024-25	90	29	62	156	3	2,335	79
Average	117	31	56	170	4	3,051	136

Black Hills State University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

1,315 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 39% of total students. The number of online students has increased 48.25% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Black Hills State University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	4,395	887	847	2,661
2016-17	4,244	971	901	2,372
2017-18	4,178	1,076	1,023	2,079
2018-19	4,035	1,106	911	2,018
2019-20	3,858	1,281	968	1,609
2020-21	3,608	1,303	1,017	1,288
2021-22	3,539	1,356	964	1,219
2022-23	3,425	1,332	896	1,197
2023-24	3,475	1,340	986	1,149
2024-25	3,346	1,315	1,135	896
Average	3,810	1,197	965	1,649

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Enrollment Trends at BHSU

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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