Enrollment Trends at Cal Poly

The student population at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo is 23,069 (22,033 undergraduate and 1,036 graduate students) . The number of students has increased by 2,125 (10.15%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at Cal Poly is 95.51% which is increased by 1,984 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 141 and it has been increasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 98 male students for every 100 female students, down from 114 in 2015.
127 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 1,714.29% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 22,028 where 23,069 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 5 year-over-year increases and 4 decreases. It peaked at 23,069 students in 2025 and was lowest at 20,944 in 2016. Overall, enrollment rose from 20,944 to 23,069 students, a net gain of 2,125 (10.1%).

The following table and chart illustrate the changes in student population by gender at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo since 2015.

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	20,944	20,049	10,710	9,339	895	451	444
2016-17	21,306 362	20,426 377	10,821 111	9,605 266	880 -15	426 -25	454 10
2017-18	22,370 1,064	21,351 925	11,153 332	10,198 593	1,019 139	508 82	511 57
2018-19	22,013 -357	21,098 -253	10,900 -253	10,198	915 -104	451 -57	464 -47
2019-20	21,426 -587	20,503 -595	10,622 -278	9,881 -317	923 8	453 2	470 6
2020-21	22,440 1,014	21,456 953	10,931 309	10,525 644	984 61	511 58	473 3
2021-22	22,231 -209	21,128 -328	10,825 -106	10,303 -222	1,103 119	556 45	547 74
2022-23	22,000 -231	21,026 -102	10,769 -56	10,257 -46	974 -129	497 -59	477 -70
2023-24	22,485 485	21,559 533	10,746 -23	10,813 556	926 -48	478 -19	448 -29
2024-25	23,069 584	22,033 474	10,838 92	11,195 382	1,036 110	558 80	478 30
Average	22,028	21,063	10,832	10,231	966	489	477

California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 21,063 where 22,033 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 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	20,049	19,318	10,245	9,073	731	465	266
2016-17	20,426	19,703	10,334	9,369	723	487	236
2017-18	21,351	20,584	10,662	9,922	767	491	276
2018-19	21,098	20,333	10,438	9,895	765	462	303
2019-20	20,503	19,685	10,105	9,580	818	517	301
2020-21	21,456	20,198	10,142	10,056	1,258	789	469
2021-22	21,128	19,960	10,117	9,843	1,168	708	460
2022-23	21,026	19,990	10,145	9,845	1,036	624	412
2023-24	21,559	20,629	10,208	10,421	930	538	392
2024-25	22,033	21,266	10,409	10,857	767	429	338
Average	21,063	21,063	10,281	9,886	21,063	551	345

California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 966 where 1,036 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 California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	895	664	329	335	231	122	109
2016-17	880	637	297	340	243	129	114
2017-18	1,019	791	372	419	228	136	92
2018-19	915	663	315	348	252	136	116
2019-20	923	694	319	375	229	134	95
2020-21	984	725	362	363	259	149	110
2021-22	1,103	816	389	427	287	167	120
2022-23	974	712	328	384	262	169	93
2023-24	926	695	344	351	231	134	97
2024-25	1,036	739	405	334	297	153	144
Average	966	966	346	368	966	143	109

California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 47.80% and the percentage of black students is 0.75% at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo. 13.82% of enrolled students is Asian. Hispanic students comprise 25.02% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 57.22% to 47.80%. Asian enrollment grew from 12.07% to 13.82%. Black student enrollment decreased from 0.79% to 0.75%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 15.57% to 25.02%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.6833 which indicates that moderately diverse. This increased from 0.6289 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo 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	32	2,527	166	3,262	30	11,985	1,438
2016-17	31	2,631	152	3,407	31	12,018	1,508
2017-18	31	2,843	168	3,744	32	12,254	1,666
2018-19	32	2,871	170	3,744	42	11,972	1,657
2019-20	30	2,878	180	3,719	46	11,512	1,634
2020-21	27	2,985	173	4,097	48	12,093	1,711
2021-22	27	2,996	160	4,303	51	11,781	1,662
2022-23	23	3,086	161	4,716	57	11,284	1,671
2023-24	27	3,202	154	5,156	57	11,179	1,754
2024-25	28	3,187	173	5,773	50	11,027	1,851
Average	29	2,921	166	4,192	44	11,711	1,655

California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

127 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 1% of total students. The number of online students has increased 1,714.29% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at California Polytechnic State University-San Luis Obispo from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	20,944	7	642	20,295
2016-17	21,306	14	878	20,414
2017-18	22,370	35	968	21,367
2018-19	22,013	48	1,637	20,328
2019-20	21,426	68	1,631	19,727
2020-21	22,440	18,546	3,798	96
2021-22	22,231	846	15,682	5,703
2022-23	22,000	151	7,938	13,911
2023-24	22,485	109	8,603	13,773
2024-25	23,069	127	7,947	14,995
Average	22,028	1,995	4,972	15,061

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Enrollment Trends at Cal Poly

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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