Enrollment Trends at Mercyhurst

The student population at Mercyhurst University is 2,632 (2,274 undergraduate and 358 graduate students) . The number of students has decreased by 196 (6.93%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at Mercyhurst is 86.40% which is decreased by 239 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 43 and it has been increasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 73 male students for every 100 female students, down from 77 in 2015.
191 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 135.80% since 2015.

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Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 2,760 where 2,632 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 3,041 students in 2022 and was lowest at 2,632 in 2025. Overall, enrollment dropped from 2,828 to 2,632 students, a net loss of 196 (6.9%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	2,828	2,513	1,089	1,424	315	143	172
2016-17	2,690 -138	2,366 -147	1,098 9	1,268 -156	324 9	132 -11	192 20
2017-18	2,759 69	2,452 86	1,038 -60	1,414 146	307 -17	107 -25	200 8
2018-19	2,685 -74	2,381 -71	990 -48	1,391 -23	304 -3	118 11	186 -14
2019-20	2,704 19	2,378 -3	965 -25	1,413 22	326 22	126 8	200 14
2020-21	2,790 86	2,370 -8	983 18	1,387 -26	420 94	170 44	250 50
2021-22	3,041 251	2,641 271	1,057 74	1,584 197	400 -20	143 -27	257 7
2022-23	2,801 -240	2,446 -195	982 -75	1,464 -120	355 -45	142 -1	213 -44
2023-24	2,668 -133	2,292 -154	954 -28	1,338 -126	376 21	142	234 21
2024-25	2,632 -36	2,274 -18	959 5	1,315 -23	358 -18	151 9	207 -27
Average	2,760	2,411	1,012	1,400	349	137	211

Mercyhurst University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 2,411 where 2,274 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 Mercyhurst University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	2,513	2,402	1,048	1,354	111	41	70
2016-17	2,366	2,310	1,068	1,242	56	30	26
2017-18	2,452	2,373	1,014	1,359	79	24	55
2018-19	2,381	2,319	971	1,348	62	19	43
2019-20	2,378	2,295	937	1,358	83	28	55
2020-21	2,370	2,296	961	1,335	74	22	52
2021-22	2,641	2,404	1,012	1,392	237	45	192
2022-23	2,446	2,249	934	1,315	197	48	149
2023-24	2,292	2,129	909	1,220	163	45	118
2024-25	2,274	2,109	911	1,198	165	48	117
Average	2,411	2,411	977	1,312	2,411	35	88

Mercyhurst University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 349 where 358 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 Mercyhurst University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	315	169	69	100	146	74	72
2016-17	324	196	81	115	128	51	77
2017-18	307	190	66	124	117	41	76
2018-19	304	182	61	121	122	57	65
2019-20	326	193	70	123	133	56	77
2020-21	420	290	121	169	130	49	81
2021-22	400	274	93	181	126	50	76
2022-23	355	228	84	144	127	58	69
2023-24	376	273	96	177	103	46	57
2024-25	358	259	111	148	99	40	59
Average	349	349	85	140	349	52	71

Mercyhurst University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 71.47%. The percentage was 69.06% 10 years ago and Mercyhurst still has a high percentage of white students. 1.52% of enrolled students is Asian and 6.84% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 5.24% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students increased from 69.06% to 71.47%. Asian enrollment grew from 1.38% to 1.52%. Black student enrollment increased from 5.23% to 6.84%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 2.26% to 5.24%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.4816 which indicates that somewhat diverse. This decreased from 0.5195 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has declined.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Mercyhurst 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	22	39	148	64	0	1,953	20
2016-17	16	39	142	127	4	1,675	0
2017-18	8	40	140	107	3	1,960	42
2018-19	7	34	115	105	1	2,089	59
2019-20	31	45	110	115	1	2,162	0
2020-21	21	37	119	114	1	2,250	29
2021-22	17	34	140	131	1	2,405	22
2022-23	10	27	135	127	1	2,083	14
2023-24	9	36	147	130	2	1,941	16
2024-25	9	40	180	138	7	1,881	5
Average	15	37	138	116	2	2,040	21

Mercyhurst University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

191 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 7% of total students. The number of online students has increased 135.80% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Mercyhurst University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	2,828	81	35	2,712
2016-17	2,690	81	210	2,399
2017-18	2,759	43	262	2,454
2018-19	2,685	90	553	2,042
2019-20	2,704	20	375	2,309
2020-21	2,790	231	611	1,948
2021-22	3,041	248	709	2,084
2022-23	2,801	181	1	2,619
2023-24	2,668	165	0	2,503
2024-25	2,632	191	668	1,773
Average	2,760	133	342	2,284

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