Enrollment Trends at OBU

The student population at Ouachita Baptist University is 1,858 (1,729 undergraduate and 129 graduate students) . The number of students has increased by 320 (20.81%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at OBU is 93.06% which is increased by 191 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 129 and it has been increasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 77 male students for every 100 female students, down from 95 in 2015.
49 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 188.24% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 1,679 where 1,858 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 7 year-over-year increases and 2 decreases. It peaked at 1,858 students in 2025 and was lowest at 1,493 in 2017. Overall, enrollment rose from 1,538 to 1,858 students, a net gain of 320 (20.8%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	1,538	1,538	749	789	0	0	0
2016-17	1,493 -45	1,493 -45	698 -51	795 6	0	0	0
2017-18	1,545 52	1,545 52	701 3	844 49	0	0	0
2018-19	1,660 115	1,660 115	745 44	915 71	0	0	0
2019-20	1,633 -27	1,633 -27	702 -43	931 16	0	0	0
2020-21	1,704 71	1,664 31	693 -9	971 40	40 40	3 3	37 37
2021-22	1,764 60	1,716 52	746 53	970 -1	48 8	1 -2	47 10
2022-23	1,784 20	1,730 14	725 -21	1,005 35	54 6	6 5	48 1
2023-24	1,815 31	1,734 4	761 36	973 -32	81 27	17 11	64 16
2024-25	1,858 43	1,729 -5	773 12	956 -17	129 48	37 20	92 28
Average	1,679	1,644	729	915	35	6	29

Ouachita Baptist University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 1,644 where 1,729 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 Ouachita Baptist University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	1,538	1,455	691	764	83	58	25
2016-17	1,493	1,468	684	784	25	14	11
2017-18	1,545	1,500	671	829	45	30	15
2018-19	1,660	1,529	685	844	131	60	71
2019-20	1,633	1,506	638	868	127	64	63
2020-21	1,664	1,502	606	896	162	87	75
2021-22	1,716	1,551	660	891	165	86	79
2022-23	1,730	1,562	661	901	168	64	104
2023-24	1,734	1,586	689	897	148	72	76
2024-25	1,729	1,580	706	874	149	67	82
Average	1,644	1,644	669	855	1,644	60	60

Ouachita Baptist University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 35 where 129 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 Ouachita Baptist University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2016-17	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2017-18	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2018-19	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2019-20	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
2020-21	40	39	2	37	1	1	0
2021-22	48	48	1	47	0	0	0
2022-23	54	46	4	42	8	2	6
2023-24	81	51	10	41	30	7	23
2024-25	129	68	23	45	61	14	47
Average	35	35	4	21	35	2	8

Ouachita Baptist University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 81.16%. The percentage was 83.16% 10 years ago and OBU still has a high percentage of white students. 1.18% of enrolled students is Asian and 5.54% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 6.19% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 83.16% to 81.16%. Asian enrollment grew from 0.72% to 1.18%. Black student enrollment decreased from 9.10% to 5.54%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 3.77% to 6.19%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.3328 which indicates that somewhat diverse. This increased from 0.2986 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Ouachita Baptist 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	9	11	140	58	2	1,279	1
2016-17	9	13	119	63	1	1,249	2
2017-18	6	7	121	72	3	1,261	36
2018-19	9	8	124	84	1	1,355	44
2019-20	7	13	111	92	1	1,326	43
2020-21	8	18	115	85	0	1,392	51
2021-22	5	22	130	95	0	1,416	62
2022-23	10	26	109	98	1	1,441	65
2023-24	8	17	102	107	1	1,487	61
2024-25	6	22	103	115	0	1,508	69
Average	8	16	117	87	1	1,371	43

Ouachita Baptist University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

49 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 3% of total students. The number of online students has increased 188.24% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Ouachita Baptist University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	1,538	17	129	1,392
2016-17	1,493	20	120	1,353
2017-18	1,545	17	184	1,344
2018-19	1,660	24	91	1,545
2019-20	1,633	28	140	1,465
2020-21	1,704	29	207	1,468
2021-22	1,764	31	244	1,489
2022-23	1,784	48	220	1,516
2023-24	1,815	38	351	1,426
2024-25	1,858	49	396	1,413
Average	1,679	30	208	1,441

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Enrollment Trends at OBU

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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