Enrollment Trends at Penn State

The student population at Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus is 50,737 (42,604 undergraduate and 8,133 graduate students) . The number of students has increased by 3,430 (7.25%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at Penn State is 83.97% which is increased by 1,862 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 1,568 and it has been increasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 110 male students for every 100 female students, down from 117 in 2015.
321 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 256.67% since 2015.

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Pennsylvania State University Main Campus
Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 43,162 where 50,737 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 3 decreases. It peaked at 91,427 students in 2020 and was lowest at 46,810 in 2019. Overall, enrollment rose from 47,307 to 50,737 students, a net gain of 3,430 (7.3%).

The following table and chart illustrate the changes in student population by gender at Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus since 2015.

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	47,307	40,742	21,899	18,843	6,565	3,589	2,976
2016-17	47,789 482	41,359 617	22,145 246	19,214 371	6,430 -135	3,517 -72	2,913 -63
2017-18	47,119 -670	40,835 -524	21,761 -384	19,074 -140	6,284 -146	3,451 -66	2,833 -80
2018-19	46,810 -309	40,363 -472	21,482 -279	18,881 -193	6,447 163	3,503 52	2,944 111
2019-20	91,427 44,617	76,099 35,736	41,089 19,607	35,010 16,129	15,328 8,881	8,033 4,530	7,295 4,351
2020-21	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2021-22	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2022-23	50,028	41,745	22,183	19,562	8,283	4,207	4,076
2023-24	50,399 371	42,223 478	22,330 147	19,893 331	8,176 -107	4,163 -44	4,013 -63
2024-25	50,737 338	42,604 381	22,467 137	20,137 244	8,133 -43	4,144 -19	3,989 -24
Average	43,162	36,597	19,536	17,061	6,565	3,461	3,104

Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 36,597 where 42,604 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 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	40,742	39,520	21,138	18,382	1,222	761	461
2016-17	41,359	40,139	21,373	18,766	1,220	772	448
2017-18	40,835	39,785	21,125	18,660	1,050	636	414
2018-19	40,363	39,321	20,817	18,504	1,042	665	377
2019-20	76,099	66,409	36,025	30,384	9,690	5,064	4,626
2020-21	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2021-22	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2022-23	41,745	40,528	21,368	19,160	1,217	815	402
2023-24	42,223	41,011	21,532	19,479	1,212	798	414
2024-25	42,604	41,500	21,746	19,754	1,104	721	383
Average	36,597	36,597	18,512	16,309	36,597	1,023	753

Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 6,565 where 8,133 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 Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	6,565	5,890	3,278	2,612	675	311	364
2016-17	6,430	5,735	3,167	2,568	695	350	345
2017-18	6,284	5,551	3,093	2,458	733	358	375
2018-19	6,447	5,819	3,196	2,623	628	307	321
2019-20	15,328	7,827	4,127	3,700	7,501	3,906	3,595
2020-21	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2021-22	-	-	-	-	-	-	-
2022-23	8,283	7,742	3,969	3,773	541	238	303
2023-24	8,176	7,709	3,927	3,782	467	236	231
2024-25	8,133	7,651	3,905	3,746	482	239	243
Average	6,565	6,565	2,866	2,526	6,565	595	578

Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 57.93%. The percentage was 65.14% 10 years ago and Penn State still has a high percentage of white students. 7.07% of enrolled students is Asian and 4.33% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 8.66% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 65.14% to 57.93%. Asian enrollment grew from 5.78% to 7.07%. Black student enrollment increased from 4.01% to 4.33%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 5.71% to 8.66%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.6486 which indicates that moderately diverse. This increased from 0.5669 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus 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	35	2,732	1,895	2,700	43	30,816	1,139
2016-17	31	2,829	1,912	2,801	46	30,540	1,211
2017-18	35	2,719	1,974	2,975	38	29,592	1,458
2018-19	35	2,671	1,918	3,004	44	29,223	1,527
2019-20	124	5,675	4,948	6,803	93	58,001	3,107
2020-21
2021-22
2022-23	49	3,307	2,168	3,955	37	29,395	1,691
2023-24	63	3,397	2,281	4,293	31	29,422	1,792
2024-25	55	3,589	2,199	4,396	29	29,392	1,899
Average	43	2,692	1,930	3,093	36	26,638	1,382

Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

321 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 1% of total students. The number of online students has increased 256.67% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Pennsylvania State University-Main Campus from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	47,307	90	14,265	32,952
2016-17	47,789	81	15,874	31,834
2017-18	47,119	72	15,992	31,055
2018-19	46,810	89	13,255	33,466
2019-20	91,427	15,445	30,192	45,790
2020-21	-	-	-	-
2021-22	-	-	-	-
2022-23	50,028	116	18,032	31,880
2023-24	50,399	279	19,580	30,540
2024-25	50,737	321	20,178	30,238
Average	43,162	1,649	14,737	26,776

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