Enrollment Trends at Dakota Wesleyan

The student population at Dakota Wesleyan University is 892 (771 undergraduate and 121 graduate students) . The number of students has decreased by 99 (9.99%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at Dakota Wesleyan is 86.43% which is decreased by 134 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 35 and it has been increasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 91 male students for every 100 female students, up from 73 in 2015.
120 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has decreased by -44.19% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 932 where 892 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 1,024 students in 2019 and was lowest at 880 in 2020. Overall, enrollment dropped from 991 to 892 students, a net loss of 99 (10%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	991	905	388	517	86	30	56
2016-17	996 5	879 -26	372 -16	507 -10	117 31	37 7	80 24
2017-18	908 -88	792 -87	336 -36	456 -51	116 -1	45 8	71 -9
2018-19	1,024 116	884 92	377 41	507 51	140 24	51 6	89 18
2019-20	880 -144	747 -137	319 -58	428 -79	133 -7	50 -1	83 -6
2020-21	933 53	781 34	336 17	445 17	152 19	63 13	89 6
2021-22	926 -7	770 -11	330 -6	440 -5	156 4	55 -8	101 12
2022-23	887 -39	723 -47	339 9	384 -56	164 8	73 18	91 -10
2023-24	886 -1	767 44	336 -3	431 47	119 -45	63 -10	56 -35
2024-25	892 6	771 4	362 26	409 -22	121 2	64 1	57 1
Average	932	802	350	452	130	53	77

Dakota Wesleyan University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 802 where 771 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 Dakota Wesleyan University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	905	696	338	358	209	50	159
2016-17	879	669	328	341	210	44	166
2017-18	792	668	318	350	124	18	106
2018-19	884	689	329	360	195	48	147
2019-20	747	630	302	328	117	17	100
2020-21	781	628	307	321	153	29	124
2021-22	770	619	301	318	151	29	122
2022-23	723	580	303	277	143	36	107
2023-24	767	618	305	313	149	31	118
2024-25	771	650	328	322	121	34	87
Average	802	802	316	329	802	34	124

Dakota Wesleyan University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 130 where 121 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 Dakota Wesleyan University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	86	23	12	11	63	18	45
2016-17	117	29	19	10	88	18	70
2017-18	116	36	25	11	80	20	60
2018-19	140	33	21	12	107	30	77
2019-20	133	41	27	14	92	23	69
2020-21	152	67	38	29	85	25	60
2021-22	156	65	32	33	91	23	68
2022-23	164	78	38	40	86	35	51
2023-24	119	72	37	35	47	26	21
2024-25	121	69	37	32	52	27	25
Average	130	130	29	23	130	25	55

Dakota Wesleyan University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 81.84%. The percentage was 89.51% 10 years ago and Dakota Wesleyan still has a high percentage of white students. 0.67% of enrolled students is Asian and 2.02% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 6.39% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 89.51% to 81.84%. Asian enrollment grew from 0.40% to 0.67%. Black student enrollment increased from 1.31% to 2.02%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 2.62% to 6.39%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.3233 which indicates that somewhat diverse. This increased from 0.1973 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Dakota Wesleyan 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	12	4	13	26	0	887	24
2016-17	6	5	11	27	0	904	30
2017-18	10	7	16	22	0	815	24
2018-19	20	10	24	61	3	845	26
2019-20	14	7	16	58	2	732	22
2020-21	17	7	20	60	1	790	25
2021-22	16	8	6	48	2	780	33
2022-23	15	10	12	58	1	725	38
2023-24	10	6	15	71	1	726	31
2024-25	10	6	18	57	0	730	43
Average	13	7	15	49	1	793	30

Dakota Wesleyan University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

120 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 13% of total students. The number of online students has decreased -44.19% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Dakota Wesleyan University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	991	215	135	641
2016-17	996	201	157	638
2017-18	908	164	155	589
2018-19	1,024	119	33	872
2019-20	880	69	66	745
2020-21	933	34	94	805
2021-22	926	5	71	850
2022-23	887	94	215	578
2023-24	886	67	315	504
2024-25	892	120	231	541
Average	932	109	147	676

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Enrollment Trends at Dakota Wesleyan

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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