Enrollment Trends at Tennessee State

The student population at Tennessee State University is 6,310 (5,057 undergraduate and 1,253 graduate students) . The number of students has decreased by 2,857 (31.17%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at Tennessee State is 80.14% which is decreased by 2,207 over last 10 years. The graduate student population decreased by 650 and it has been decreasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 53 male students for every 100 female students, down from 63 in 2015.
490 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has decreased by -13.73% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 8,138 where 6,310 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 3 year-over-year increases and 6 decreases. It peaked at 9,218 students in 2023 and was lowest at 6,310 in 2025. Overall, enrollment dropped from 9,167 to 6,310 students, a net loss of 2,857 (31.2%).

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	9,167	7,264	2,922	4,342	1,903	629	1,274
2016-17	8,760 -407	7,014 -250	2,878 -44	4,136 -206	1,746 -157	604 -25	1,142 -132
2017-18	8,177 -583	6,505 -509	2,499 -379	4,006 -130	1,672 -74	570 -34	1,102 -40
2018-19	7,774 -403	6,121 -384	2,311 -188	3,810 -196	1,653 -19	553 -17	1,100 -2
2019-20	8,081 307	5,875 -246	2,244 -67	3,631 -179	2,206 553	714 161	1,492 392
2020-21	7,615 -466	6,000 125	2,143 -101	3,857 226	1,615 -591	486 -228	1,129 -363
2021-22	8,077 462	6,375 375	2,320 177	4,055 198	1,702 87	522 36	1,180 51
2022-23	9,218 1,141	7,678 1,303	2,620 300	5,058 1,003	1,540 -162	538 16	1,002 -178
2023-24	8,198 -1,020	6,765 -913	2,326 -294	4,439 -619	1,433 -107	493 -45	940 -62
2024-25	6,310 -1,888	5,057 -1,708	1,755 -571	3,302 -1,137	1,253 -180	428 -65	825 -115
Average	8,138	6,465	2,402	4,064	1,672	554	1,119

Tennessee State University Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 6,465 where 5,057 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 Tennessee State University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	7,264	5,975	2,494	3,481	1,289	428	861
2016-17	7,014	5,699	2,422	3,277	1,315	456	859
2017-18	6,505	5,431	2,115	3,316	1,074	384	690
2018-19	6,121	5,029	1,868	3,161	1,092	443	649
2019-20	5,875	4,807	1,782	3,025	1,068	462	606
2020-21	6,000	4,816	1,644	3,172	1,184	499	685
2021-22	6,375	4,907	1,702	3,205	1,468	618	850
2022-23	7,678	6,686	2,257	4,429	992	363	629
2023-24	6,765	5,888	1,990	3,898	877	336	541
2024-25	5,057	4,476	1,525	2,951	581	230	351
Average	6,465	6,465	1,980	3,392	6,465	422	672

Tennessee State University Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 1,672 where 1,253 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 Tennessee State University since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	1,903	830	298	532	1,073	331	742
2016-17	1,746	697	275	422	1,049	329	720
2017-18	1,672	698	255	443	974	315	659
2018-19	1,653	637	242	395	1,016	311	705
2019-20	2,206	632	226	406	1,574	488	1,086
2020-21	1,615	670	206	464	945	280	665
2021-22	1,702	724	241	483	978	281	697
2022-23	1,540	649	238	411	891	300	591
2023-24	1,433	665	239	426	768	254	514
2024-25	1,253	596	202	394	657	226	431
Average	1,672	1,672	242	438	1,672	312	681

Tennessee State University Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 9.60% and the percentage of black students is 75.40% at Tennessee State University. 0.92% of enrolled students is Asian. Hispanic students comprise 3.60% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 18.64% to 9.60%. Asian enrollment declined from 1.00% to 0.92%. Black student enrollment increased from 63.41% to 75.40%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 1.32% to 3.60%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.4201 which indicates that somewhat diverse. This decreased from 0.5620 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has declined.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Tennessee State 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	15	92	5,813	121	0	1,709	270
2016-17	11	81	5,673	122	0	1,593	227
2017-18	7	79	5,460	132	0	1,443	196
2018-19	14	74	5,271	129	0	1,365	189
2019-20	13	80	5,827	137	0	1,258	173
2020-21	6	120	5,641	158	0	1,252	167
2021-22	6	92	5,906	146	5	1,195	186
2022-23	12	91	7,247	231	5	946	241
2023-24	7	97	6,297	218	4	721	219
2024-25	6	58	4,758	227	3	606	170
Average	10	86	5,789	162	2	1,209	204

Tennessee State University Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

490 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 8% of total students. The number of online students has decreased -13.73% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at Tennessee State University from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	9,167	568	1,106	7,493
2016-17	8,760	482	1,254	7,024
2017-18	8,177	495	1,296	6,386
2018-19	7,774	438	7,217	119
2019-20	8,081	456	1,433	6,192
2020-21	7,615	861	3,093	3,661
2021-22	8,077	1,275	2,651	4,151
2022-23	9,218	918	4,406	3,894
2023-24	8,198	652	3,769	3,777
2024-25	6,310	490	2,714	3,106
Average	8,138	664	2,894	4,580

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Enrollment Trends at Tennessee State

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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