Enrollment Trends at SWU

The student population at Southern Wesleyan University is 980 (784 undergraduate and 196 graduate students) . The number of students has decreased by 756 (43.55%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at SWU is 80.00% which is decreased by 539 over last 10 years. The graduate student population decreased by 217 and it has been decreasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 56 male students for every 100 female students, down from 57 in 2015.
412 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 21.89% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 1,427 where 980 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 2 year-over-year increases and 7 decreases. It peaked at 1,880 students in 2017 and was lowest at 980 in 2025. Overall, enrollment dropped from 1,736 to 980 students, a net loss of 756 (43.5%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	1,736	1,323	537	786	413	90	323
2016-17	1,880 144	1,424 101	562 25	862 76	456 43	92 2	364 41
2017-18	1,688 -192	1,360 -64	536 -26	824 -38	328 -128	61 -31	267 -97
2018-19	1,551 -137	1,226 -134	488 -48	738 -86	325 -3	47 -14	278 11
2019-20	1,430 -121	1,150 -76	430 -58	720 -18	280 -45	55 8	225 -53
2020-21	1,345 -85	1,085 -65	385 -45	700 -20	260 -20	60 5	200 -25
2021-22	1,300 -45	1,043 -42	354 -31	689 -11	257 -3	52 -8	205 5
2022-23	1,175 -125	896 -147	337 -17	559 -130	279 22	52	227 22
2023-24	1,188 13	887 -9	333 -4	554 -5	301 22	45 -7	256 29
2024-25	980 -208	784 -103	305 -28	479 -75	196 -105	46 1	150 -106
Average	1,427	1,118	427	691	310	60	250

Southern Wesleyan University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 1,118 where 784 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 Southern Wesleyan University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	1,323	1,249	504	745	74	33	41
2016-17	1,424	785	360	425	639	202	437
2017-18	1,360	820	375	445	540	161	379
2018-19	1,226	810	365	445	416	123	293
2019-20	1,150	800	329	471	350	101	249
2020-21	1,085	774	303	471	311	82	229
2021-22	1,043	719	262	457	324	92	232
2022-23	896	641	260	381	255	77	178
2023-24	887	627	257	370	260	76	184
2024-25	784	584	255	329	200	50	150
Average	1,118	1,118	327	454	1,118	100	237

Southern Wesleyan University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 310 where 196 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 Southern Wesleyan University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	413	413	90	323	0	0	0
2016-17	456	127	36	91	329	56	273
2017-18	328	15	3	12	313	58	255
2018-19	325	10	1	9	315	46	269
2019-20	280	5	1	4	275	54	221
2020-21	260	15	6	9	245	54	191
2021-22	257	48	13	35	209	39	170
2022-23	279	51	16	35	228	36	192
2023-24	301	42	7	35	259	38	221
2024-25	196	51	14	37	145	32	113
Average	310	310	19	59	310	41	191

Southern Wesleyan University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 68.16%. The percentage was 61.52% 10 years ago and SWU still has a high percentage of white students. 0.41% of enrolled students is Asian and 17.04% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 7.55% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students increased from 61.52% to 68.16%. Asian enrollment declined from 0.46% to 0.41%. Black student enrollment decreased from 28.40% to 17.04%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 4.44% to 7.55%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.4992 which indicates that somewhat diverse. This decreased from 0.5387 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has declined.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Southern 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	5	8	493	77	1	1,068	24
2016-17	4	4	466	67	2	1,047	0
2017-18	5	4	377	64	1	1,005	0
2018-19	3	12	321	52	2	967	39
2019-20	4	10	283	55	1	970	34
2020-21	0	9	260	60	0	913	33
2021-22	0	8	263	74	0	848	38
2022-23	0	6	199	68	0	767	40
2023-24	2	7	200	91	0	827	31
2024-25	1	4	167	74	1	668	37
Average	2	7	303	68	1	908	28

Southern Wesleyan University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

412 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 42% of total students. The number of online students has increased 21.89% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Southern Wesleyan University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	1,736	338	0	1,398
2016-17	1,880	369	0	1,511
2017-18	1,688	620	0	1,068
2018-19	1,551	786	259	506
2019-20	1,430	628	295	507
2020-21	1,345	570	318	457
2021-22	1,300	550	516	234
2022-23	1,175	535	417	223
2023-24	1,188	450	279	459
2024-25	980	412	278	290
Average	1,427	526	236	665

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Enrollment Trends at SWU

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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