Enrollment Trends at UC Merced

The student population at University of California-Merced is 9,110 (8,372 undergraduate and 738 graduate students) . The number of students has increased by 2,425 (36.28%) over the past decade.

Class Level: The percentage of undergraduate students at UC Merced is 91.90% which is increased by 2,135 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 290 and it has been increasing.
Gender Breakdown: In 2025, there were 122 male students for every 100 female students, up from 97 in 2015.
2 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has decreased by -99.98% since 2015. (Note: The high increase/decrease may be due to the pandemic)

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 8,485 where 9,110 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 9,147 students in 2024 and was lowest at 6,685 in 2016. Overall, enrollment rose from 6,685 to 9,110 students, a net gain of 2,425 (36.3%).

The following table and chart illustrate the changes in student population by gender at University of California-Merced since 2015.

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	6,685	6,237	3,034	3,203	448	257	191
2016-17	7,336 651	6,815 578	3,340 306	3,475 272	521 73	291 34	230 39
2017-18	7,967 631	7,375 560	3,616 276	3,759 284	592 71	326 35	266 36
2018-19	8,544 577	7,881 506	3,812 196	4,069 310	663 71	354 28	309 43
2019-20	8,847 303	8,151 270	3,916 104	4,235 166	696 33	376 22	320 11
2020-21	9,018 171	8,276 125	3,913 -3	4,363 128	742 46	399 23	343 23
2021-22	9,093 75	8,321 45	3,972 59	4,349 -14	772 30	431 32	341 -2
2022-23	9,103 10	8,343 22	4,251 279	4,092 -257	760 -12	423 -8	337 -4
2023-24	9,147 44	8,372 29	4,396 145	3,976 -116	775 15	439 16	336 -1
2024-25	9,110 -37	8,372	4,588 192	3,784 -192	738 -37	424 -15	314 -22
Average	8,485	7,814	3,884	3,931	671	372	299

University of California-Merced Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 7,814 where 8,372 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 University of California-Merced since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	6,237	6,164	2,979	3,185	73	55	18
2016-17	6,815	6,741	3,286	3,455	74	54	20
2017-18	7,375	7,297	3,563	3,734	78	53	25
2018-19	7,881	7,813	3,775	4,038	68	37	31
2019-20	8,151	8,080	3,868	4,212	71	48	23
2020-21	8,276	8,194	3,863	4,331	82	50	32
2021-22	8,321	8,227	3,919	4,308	94	53	41
2022-23	8,343	8,202	4,167	4,035	141	84	57
2023-24	8,372	8,266	4,341	3,925	106	55	51
2024-25	8,372	8,236	4,508	3,728	136	80	56
Average	7,814	7,814	3,827	3,895	7,814	57	35

University of California-Merced Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 671 where 738 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 University of California-Merced since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	448	448	257	191	0	0	0
2016-17	521	519	291	228	2	0	2
2017-18	592	589	324	265	3	2	1
2018-19	663	659	350	309	4	4	0
2019-20	696	694	375	319	2	1	1
2020-21	742	737	396	341	5	3	2
2021-22	772	769	428	341	3	3	0
2022-23	760	755	418	337	5	5	0
2023-24	775	767	434	333	8	5	3
2024-25	738	728	419	309	10	5	5
Average	671	671	369	297	671	3	1

University of California-Merced Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 10.04% and the percentage of black students is 4.92% at University of California-Merced. 22.58% of enrolled students is Asian. Hispanic students comprise 52.54% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 14.26% to 10.04%. Asian enrollment grew from 22.27% to 22.58%. Black student enrollment increased from 4.62% to 4.92%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 46.24% to 52.54%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.6585 which indicates that moderately diverse. This decreased from 0.7126 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has declined.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at University of California-Merced 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	1,489	309	3,091	49	953	258
2016-17	12	1,496	326	3,574	53	947	258
2017-18	12	1,519	354	4,033	53	938	258
2018-19	10	1,591	372	4,397	53	949	267
2019-20	7	1,613	374	4,653	48	907	265
2020-21	10	1,536	387	4,932	42	864	289
2021-22	7	1,686	382	4,933	36	862	303
2022-23	8	1,855	403	4,763	28	887	343
2023-24	14	1,946	425	4,991	23	917	397
2024-25	16	2,057	448	4,786	22	915	409
Average	11	1,679	378	4,415	41	914	305

University of California-Merced Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

2 students are enrolled in online degree programs exclusively for the academic year 2024-2025, which is 0% of total students. The number of online students has decreased -99.98% since 2020. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at University of California-Merced from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	6,685	0	56	6,629
2016-17	7,336	0	191	7,145
2017-18	7,967	0	178	7,789
2018-19	8,544	0	178	8,366
2019-20	8,847	0	55	8,792
2020-21	9,018	8,077	686	255
2021-22	9,093	12	1,516	7,565
2022-23	9,103	0	1,123	7,980
2023-24	9,147	2	912	8,233
2024-25	9,110	2	960	8,148
Average	8,485	809	586	7,090

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Enrollment Trends at UC Merced

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

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