Enrollment Trends at CNU

The student population at Christopher Newport University is 4,454 (4,369 undergraduate and 85 graduate students) . The number of students has decreased by 718 (13.88%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at CNU is 98.09% which is decreased by 682 over last 10 years. The graduate student population decreased by 36 and it has been decreasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 90 male students for every 100 female students, up from 75 in 2015.
All students have enrolled in on-campus classes (Christopher Newport University does not offer online degree/certificate program).

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 4,814 where 4,454 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 5,172 students in 2016 and was lowest at 4,454 in 2025. Overall, enrollment dropped from 5,172 to 4,454 students, a net loss of 718 (13.9%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	5,172	5,051	2,179	2,872	121	32	89
2016-17	5,042 -130	4,930 -121	2,144 -35	2,786 -86	112 -9	38 6	74 -15
2017-18	5,081 39	4,954 24	2,166 22	2,788 2	127 15	46 8	81 7
2018-19	4,957 -124	4,857 -97	2,151 -15	2,706 -82	100 -27	31 -15	69 -12
2019-20	4,919 -38	4,837 -20	2,159 8	2,678 -28	82 -18	33 2	49 -20
2020-21	4,868 -51	4,758 -79	2,126 -33	2,632 -46	110 28	54 21	56 7
2021-22	4,584 -284	4,472 -286	2,036 -90	2,436 -196	112 2	45 -9	67 11
2022-23	4,559 -25	4,449 -23	2,067 31	2,382 -54	110 -2	46 1	64 -3
2023-24	4,503 -56	4,407 -42	2,105 38	2,302 -80	96 -14	39 -7	57 -7
2024-25	4,454 -49	4,369 -38	2,078 -27	2,291 -11	85 -11	35 -4	50 -7
Average	4,814	4,708	2,121	2,587	106	40	66

Christopher Newport University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 4,708 where 4,369 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 Christopher Newport University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	5,051	4,961	2,138	2,823	90	41	49
2016-17	4,930	4,856	2,100	2,756	74	44	30
2017-18	4,954	4,867	2,115	2,752	87	51	36
2018-19	4,857	4,789	2,120	2,669	68	31	37
2019-20	4,837	4,742	2,123	2,619	95	36	59
2020-21	4,758	4,653	2,072	2,581	105	54	51
2021-22	4,472	4,388	1,986	2,402	84	50	34
2022-23	4,449	4,347	2,012	2,335	102	55	47
2023-24	4,407	4,321	2,063	2,258	86	42	44
2024-25	4,369	4,289	2,039	2,250	80	39	41
Average	4,708	4,708	2,077	2,545	4,708	44	43

Christopher Newport University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 106 where 85 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 Christopher Newport University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	121	87	15	72	34	17	17
2016-17	112	85	23	62	27	15	12
2017-18	127	101	27	74	26	19	7
2018-19	100	80	19	61	20	12	8
2019-20	82	63	20	43	19	13	6
2020-21	110	86	39	47	24	15	9
2021-22	112	90	32	58	22	13	9
2022-23	110	85	33	52	25	13	12
2023-24	96	74	31	43	22	8	14
2024-25	85	65	28	37	20	7	13
Average	106	106	27	55	106	13	11

Christopher Newport University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 68.05%. The percentage was 74.32% 10 years ago and CNU still has a high percentage of white students. 4.02% of enrolled students is Asian and 9.12% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 9.14% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 74.32% to 68.05%. Asian enrollment grew from 2.67% to 4.02%. Black student enrollment increased from 7.89% to 9.12%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 4.51% to 9.14%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.5150 which indicates that somewhat diverse. This increased from 0.4364 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Christopher Newport 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	18	138	408	233	3	3,844	242
2016-17	21	132	380	241	4	3,774	239
2017-18	12	134	357	262	5	3,838	252
2018-19	13	150	318	283	4	3,738	273
2019-20	13	166	300	293	6	3,779	253
2020-21	7	191	314	314	4	3,698	267
2021-22	5	180	318	322	5	3,463	237
2022-23	3	184	359	349	5	3,369	231
2023-24	5	184	378	369	4	3,254	244
2024-25	5	179	406	407	3	3,031	267
Average	10	164	354	307	4	3,579	251

Christopher Newport University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

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Enrollment Trends at CNU

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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