Enrollment Trends at Rice

The student population at Rice University is 8,961 (4,789 undergraduate and 4,172 graduate students) . The number of students has increased by 2,242 (33.37%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at Rice is 53.44% which is increased by 879 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 1,363 and it has been increasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 125 male students for every 100 female students, down from 135 in 2015.
541 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 1,129.55% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 7,712 where 8,961 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 8 year-over-year increases and 1 decrease. It peaked at 8,961 students in 2025 and was lowest at 6,719 in 2016. Overall, enrollment rose from 6,719 to 8,961 students, a net gain of 2,242 (33.4%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	6,719	3,910	2,062	1,848	2,809	1,797	1,012
2016-17	6,855 136	3,893 -17	2,042 -20	1,851 3	2,962 153	1,910 113	1,052 40
2017-18	7,022 167	4,001 108	2,112 70	1,889 38	3,021 59	1,964 54	1,057 5
2018-19	7,124 102	3,992 -9	2,086 -26	1,906 17	3,132 111	1,971 7	1,161 104
2019-20	7,282 158	3,989 -3	2,066 -20	1,923 17	3,293 161	2,065 94	1,228 67
2020-21	7,643 361	4,076 87	2,131 65	1,945 22	3,567 274	2,283 218	1,284 56
2021-22	8,285 642	4,247 171	2,187 56	2,060 115	4,038 471	2,580 297	1,458 174
2022-23	8,672 387	4,494 247	2,297 110	2,197 137	4,178 140	2,638 58	1,540 82
2023-24	8,556 -116	4,574 80	2,330 33	2,244 47	3,982 -196	2,472 -166	1,510 -30
2024-25	8,961 405	4,789 215	2,413 83	2,376 132	4,172 190	2,570 98	1,602 92
Average	7,712	4,197	2,173	2,024	3,515	2,225	1,290

Rice University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 4,197 where 4,789 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 Rice University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	3,910	3,863	2,035	1,828	47	27	20
2016-17	3,893	3,836	2,004	1,832	57	38	19
2017-18	4,001	3,916	2,069	1,847	85	43	42
2018-19	3,992	3,899	2,028	1,871	93	58	35
2019-20	3,989	3,942	2,038	1,904	47	28	19
2020-21	4,076	3,960	2,066	1,894	116	65	51
2021-22	4,247	4,156	2,143	2,013	91	44	47
2022-23	4,494	4,393	2,241	2,152	101	56	45
2023-24	4,574	4,483	2,281	2,202	91	49	42
2024-25	4,789	4,684	2,353	2,331	105	60	45
Average	4,197	4,197	2,126	1,987	4,197	47	37

Rice University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 3,515 where 4,172 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 Rice University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	2,809	2,609	1,707	902	200	90	110
2016-17	2,962	2,729	1,794	935	233	116	117
2017-18	3,021	2,781	1,822	959	240	142	98
2018-19	3,132	2,866	1,835	1,031	266	136	130
2019-20	3,293	3,019	1,911	1,108	274	154	120
2020-21	3,567	3,196	2,045	1,151	371	238	133
2021-22	4,038	3,692	2,360	1,332	346	220	126
2022-23	4,178	3,605	2,272	1,333	573	366	207
2023-24	3,982	3,489	2,147	1,342	493	325	168
2024-25	4,172	3,648	2,216	1,432	524	354	170
Average	3,515	3,515	2,011	1,153	3,515	214	138

Rice University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 25.90% and the percentage of black students is 7.06% at Rice University. 21.31% of enrolled students is Asian. Hispanic students comprise 13.42% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 37.51% to 25.90%. Asian enrollment grew from 17.31% to 21.31%. Black student enrollment increased from 4.75% to 7.06%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 10.42% to 13.42%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.8629 which indicates that highly diverse. This increased from 0.8152 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Rice 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	6	1,163	319	700	6	2,520	216
2016-17	9	1,175	337	714	5	2,554	218
2017-18	10	1,294	346	750	7	2,495	237
2018-19	9	1,307	383	802	9	2,462	225
2019-20	7	1,380	401	849	9	2,409	238
2020-21	6	1,498	486	907	7	2,553	271
2021-22	5	1,664	574	978	7	2,532	279
2022-23	6	1,775	602	1,042	6	2,396	300
2023-24	11	1,801	631	1,102	7	2,261	329
2024-25	14	1,910	633	1,203	5	2,321	358
Average	8	1,497	471	905	7	2,450	267

Rice University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

541 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 6% of total students. The number of online students has increased 1,129.55% since 2018. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Rice University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	6,719	0	0	6,719
2016-17	6,855	0	0	6,855
2017-18	7,022	0	0	7,022
2018-19	7,124	44	84	6,996
2019-20	7,282	178	187	6,917
2020-21	7,643	418	6,683	542
2021-22	8,285	511	2,185	5,589
2022-23	8,672	498	412	7,762
2023-24	8,556	483	236	7,837
2024-25	8,961	541	291	8,129
Average	7,712	267	1,008	6,437

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Enrollment Trends at Rice

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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