Enrollment Trends at CSU

The student population at Charleston Southern University is 3,832 (3,126 undergraduate and 706 graduate students) . The number of students has increased by 211 (5.83%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at CSU is 81.58% which is decreased by 55 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 266 and it has been increasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 59 male students for every 100 female students, down from 60 in 2015.
689 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 14.07% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 3,511 where 3,832 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 4 year-over-year increases and 5 decreases. It peaked at 3,832 students in 2025 and was lowest at 3,341 in 2022. Overall, enrollment rose from 3,621 to 3,832 students, a net gain of 211 (5.8%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	3,621	3,181	1,177	2,004	440	178	262
2016-17	3,616 -5	3,204 23	1,219 42	1,985 -19	412 -28	161 -17	251 -11
2017-18	3,492 -124	3,061 -143	1,170 -49	1,891 -94	431 19	171 10	260 9
2018-19	3,414 -78	2,945 -116	1,104 -66	1,841 -50	469 38	182 11	287 27
2019-20	3,477 63	2,884 -61	1,049 -55	1,835 -6	593 124	216 34	377 90
2020-21	3,350 -127	2,720 -164	974 -75	1,746 -89	630 37	232 16	398 21
2021-22	3,341 -9	2,725 5	970 -4	1,755 9	616 -14	226 -6	390 -8
2022-23	3,418 77	2,836 111	1,037 67	1,799 44	582 -34	208 -18	374 -16
2023-24	3,545 127	2,914 78	1,075 38	1,839 40	631 49	242 34	389 15
2024-25	3,832 287	3,126 212	1,159 84	1,967 128	706 75	260 18	446 57
Average	3,511	2,960	1,093	1,866	551	208	343

Charleston Southern University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 2,960 where 3,126 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 Charleston Southern University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	3,181	2,796	1,046	1,750	385	131	254
2016-17	3,204	2,896	1,086	1,810	308	133	175
2017-18	3,061	2,804	1,069	1,735	257	101	156
2018-19	2,945	2,729	1,014	1,715	216	90	126
2019-20	2,884	2,558	932	1,626	326	117	209
2020-21	2,720	2,491	878	1,613	229	96	133
2021-22	2,725	2,480	882	1,598	245	88	157
2022-23	2,836	2,583	928	1,655	253	109	144
2023-24	2,914	2,568	960	1,608	346	115	231
2024-25	3,126	2,710	1,003	1,707	416	156	260
Average	2,960	2,960	980	1,682	2,960	114	185

Charleston Southern University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 551 where 706 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 Charleston Southern University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	440	55	11	44	385	167	218
2016-17	412	41	10	31	371	151	220
2017-18	431	56	21	35	375	150	225
2018-19	469	82	23	59	387	159	228
2019-20	593	124	24	100	469	192	277
2020-21	630	163	48	115	467	184	283
2021-22	616	182	51	131	434	175	259
2022-23	582	206	65	141	376	143	233
2023-24	631	289	88	201	342	154	188
2024-25	706	400	126	274	306	134	172
Average	551	551	47	113	551	161	230

Charleston Southern University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 60.33%. The percentage was 60.73% 10 years ago and CSU still has a high percentage of white students. 1.44% of enrolled students is Asian and 17.90% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 7.78% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 60.73% to 60.33%. Asian enrollment declined from 1.68% to 1.44%. Black student enrollment decreased from 26.26% to 17.90%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 3.01% to 7.78%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.5957 which indicates that moderately diverse. This increased from 0.5606 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Charleston Southern 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	30	61	951	109	7	2,199	66
2016-17	27	58	947	123	6	2,226	87
2017-18	20	48	876	128	6	2,130	114
2018-19	13	45	698	112	6	1,894	118
2019-20	12	55	688	142	8	2,072	119
2020-21	10	55	608	171	7	2,022	83
2021-22	29	55	599	102	10	2,134	154
2022-23	27	38	532	183	9	1,679	117
2023-24	5	42	619	246	9	2,002	129
2024-25	8	55	686	298	8	2,312	171
Average	18	51	720	161	8	2,067	116

Charleston Southern University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

689 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 18% of total students. The number of online students has increased 14.07% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Charleston Southern University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	3,621	604	516	2,501
2016-17	3,616	462	560	2,594
2017-18	3,492	520	933	2,039
2018-19	3,414	449	877	2,088
2019-20	3,477	571	920	1,986
2020-21	3,350	744	2,178	428
2021-22	3,341	481	1,564	1,296
2022-23	3,418	563	1,132	1,723
2023-24	3,545	579	1,308	1,658
2024-25	3,832	689	1,587	1,556
Average	3,511	566	1,158	1,787

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Enrollment Trends at CSU

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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