Enrollment Trends at Columbia

The student population at Columbia College is 5,689 (5,207 undergraduate and 482 graduate students) . The number of students has decreased by 9,070 (61.45%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at Columbia is 91.53% which is decreased by 8,662 over last 10 years. The graduate student population decreased by 408 and it has been decreasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 69 male students for every 100 female students, down from 70 in 2015.
4,019 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has decreased by -52.62% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

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

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 9,955 where 5,689 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 7 decreases. It peaked at 16,413 students in 2017 and was lowest at 5,689 in 2025. Overall, enrollment dropped from 14,759 to 5,689 students, a net loss of 9,070 (61.5%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	14,759	13,869	5,707	8,162	890	358	532
2016-17	16,413 1,654	15,588 1,719	6,634 927	8,954 792	825 -65	321 -37	504 -28
2017-18	13,492 -2,921	12,754 -2,834	5,468 -1,166	7,286 -1,668	738 -87	256 -65	482 -22
2018-19	12,080 -1,412	11,416 -1,338	4,993 -475	6,423 -863	664 -74	249 -7	415 -67
2019-20	9,913 -2,167	9,387 -2,029	3,987 -1,006	5,400 -1,023	526 -138	190 -59	336 -79
2020-21	8,347 -1,566	7,861 -1,526	3,281 -706	4,580 -820	486 -40	181 -9	305 -31
2021-22	6,765 -1,582	6,351 -1,510	2,547 -734	3,804 -776	414 -72	153 -28	261 -44
2022-23	6,046 -719	5,675 -676	2,296 -251	3,379 -425	371 -43	135 -18	236 -25
2023-24	6,046	5,633 -42	2,330 34	3,303 -76	413 42	165 30	248 12
2024-25	5,689 -357	5,207 -426	2,117 -213	3,090 -213	482 69	203 38	279 31
Average	9,955	9,374	3,936	5,438	581	221	360

Columbia College Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 9,374 where 5,207 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 Columbia College since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	13,869	8,179	3,320	4,859	5,690	2,387	3,303
2016-17	15,588	6,378	2,440	3,938	9,210	4,194	5,016
2017-18	12,754	5,163	2,131	3,032	7,591	3,337	4,254
2018-19	11,416	4,469	1,815	2,654	6,947	3,178	3,769
2019-20	9,387	3,620	1,411	2,209	5,767	2,576	3,191
2020-21	7,861	3,162	1,192	1,970	4,699	2,089	2,610
2021-22	6,351	2,683	1,000	1,683	3,668	1,547	2,121
2022-23	5,675	2,349	892	1,457	3,326	1,404	1,922
2023-24	5,633	2,382	910	1,472	3,251	1,420	1,831
2024-25	5,207	2,476	982	1,494	2,731	1,135	1,596
Average	9,374	9,374	1,609	2,477	9,374	2,327	2,961

Columbia College Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 581 where 482 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 Columbia College since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	890	115	46	69	775	312	463
2016-17	825	103	34	69	722	287	435
2017-18	738	92	28	64	646	228	418
2018-19	664	99	36	63	565	213	352
2019-20	526	74	30	44	452	160	292
2020-21	486	67	31	36	419	150	269
2021-22	414	81	26	55	333	127	206
2022-23	371	61	22	39	310	113	197
2023-24	413	86	40	46	327	125	202
2024-25	482	86	35	51	396	168	228
Average	581	581	33	54	581	188	306

Columbia College Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 53.05%. The percentage was 56.60% 10 years ago and Columbia still has a high percentage of white students. 1.81% of enrolled students is Asian and 20.72% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 11.28% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 56.60% to 53.05%. Asian enrollment grew from 1.39% to 1.81%. Black student enrollment decreased from 23.44% to 20.72%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 8.04% to 11.28%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.6589 which indicates that moderately diverse. This increased from 0.6173 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Columbia College 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	151	205	3,459	1,187	61	8,353	391
2016-17	162	265	3,760	1,428	71	9,086	497
2017-18	117	237	2,908	1,218	50	7,647	487
2018-19	74	191	2,616	1,128	54	6,790	532
2019-20	63	170	2,222	904	35	5,496	497
2020-21	38	160	1,745	846	25	4,668	469
2021-22	27	136	1,404	731	21	3,788	381
2022-23	32	130	1,258	677	20	3,279	379
2023-24	28	121	1,279	676	33	3,199	378
2024-25	32	103	1,179	642	26	3,018	342
Average	72	172	2,183	944	40	5,532	435

Columbia College Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

4,019 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 71% of total students. The number of online students has decreased -52.62% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Columbia College from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	14,759	8,483	1,387	4,889
2016-17	16,413	9,308	2,754	4,351
2017-18	13,492	7,463	2,264	3,765
2018-19	12,080	7,023	2,154	2,903
2019-20	9,913	5,829	1,739	2,345
2020-21	8,347	5,247	1,289	1,811
2021-22	6,765	4,157	1,063	1,545
2022-23	6,046	3,845	854	1,347
2023-24	6,046	4,106	680	1,260
2024-25	5,689	4,019	695	975
Average	9,955	5,948	1,488	2,519

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Enrollment Trends at Columbia

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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