Enrollment Trends at UC Santa Cruz

The student population at University of California-Santa Cruz is 19,938 (17,940 undergraduate and 1,998 graduate students) . The number of students has increased by 2,070 over the past decade.

The percentage of undergraduate students at UC Santa Cruz is 89.98% which is increased by 1,709 over last 10 years. The graduate student population increased by 361 and it has been increasing.

The female to male ratio is 1.09 to 1 which means that the numbers of female and male students are similar.

166 students enrolled in online degree program exclusively and the number of online students has increased by 294.89% since 2015.

School Home 2024 Student Population

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 19,348 where 19,938 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

89.98% of total students is undergraduate students and 10.02% students is graduate students. The number of undergraduate students has increased by 1,709 and the graduate enrollment has increased by 361 over past 10 years.

The female to male ratio is 1.09 to 1 and it means that there are similar numbers of female and male students enrolled in UC Santa Cruz.

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

Year	Total	Undergraduate			Graduate
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	17,868	16,231	7,707	8,524	1,637	937	700
2016-17	18,783 915	16,962 731	8,331 624	8,631 107	1,821 184	1,057 120	764 64
2017-18	19,457 674	17,577 615	8,781 450	8,796 165	1,880 59	1,062 5	818 54
2018-19	19,700 243	17,792 215	9,181 400	8,611 -185	1,908 28	1,064 2	844 26
2019-20	19,494 -206	17,517 -275	9,127 -54	8,390 -221	1,977 69	1,051 -13	926 82
2020-21	19,161 -333	17,207 -310	9,091 -36	8,116 -274	1,954 -23	1,041 -10	913 -13
2021-22	19,841 680	17,864 657	9,319 228	8,545 429	1,977 23	1,056 15	921 8
2022-23	19,478 -363	17,502 -362	8,778 -541	8,724 179	1,976 -1	1,043 -13	933 12
2023-24	19,764 286	17,812 310	8,616 -162	9,196 472	1,952 -24	1,046 3	906 -27
2024-25	19,938 174	17,940 128	8,473 -143	9,467 271	1,998 46	1,071 25	927 21
Average	19,348	17,440	8,740	8,700	1,908	1,043	865

University of California-Santa Cruz Enrollment Trends Chart

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Undergraduate students over the last 11 years is 17,440 where 17,940 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-Santa Cruz since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	16,231	15,823	7,522	8,301	408	185	223
2016-17	16,962	16,509	8,098	8,411	453	233	220
2017-18	17,577	17,082	8,523	8,559	495	258	237
2018-19	17,792	17,255	8,878	8,377	537	303	234
2019-20	17,517	16,994	8,835	8,159	523	292	231
2020-21	17,207	16,521	8,695	7,826	686	396	290
2021-22	17,864	17,087	8,877	8,210	777	442	335
2022-23	17,502	16,728	8,327	8,401	774	451	323
2023-24	17,812	17,227	8,286	8,941	585	330	255
2024-25	17,940	17,414	8,172	9,242	526	301	225
Average	17,440	17,440	8,421	8,443	17,440	319	257

University of California-Santa Cruz Undergraduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Graduate Enrollment Changes

The average number of Graduate students over the last 11 years is 1,908 where 1,998 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-Santa Cruz since 2015.

Year	Total	Full-time			Part-time
Year	Total	Total	Men	Women	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	1,637	1,568	893	675	69	44	25
2016-17	1,821	1,740	1,008	732	81	49	32
2017-18	1,880	1,810	1,022	788	70	40	30
2018-19	1,908	1,838	1,013	825	70	51	19
2019-20	1,977	1,913	1,014	899	64	37	27
2020-21	1,954	1,889	1,012	877	65	29	36
2021-22	1,977	1,917	1,021	896	60	35	25
2022-23	1,976	1,918	1,008	910	58	35	23
2023-24	1,952	1,893	1,009	884	59	37	22
2024-25	1,998	1,948	1,040	908	50	31	19
Average	1,908	1,908	1,004	839	1,908	39	26

University of California-Santa Cruz Graduate Enrollment Trends Chart

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 30.76% and the percentage of black students is 2.05% at University of California-Santa Cruz. 23.11% of enrolled students is Asian. Hispanic students comprise 27.16% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 34.30% to 30.76%. Asian enrollment grew from 19.69% to 23.11%. Black student enrollment increased from 1.87% to 2.05%. Hispanic student representation contracted from 29.32% to 27.16%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.7708 which indicates that quite diverse. This increased from 0.7522 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at University of California-Santa Cruz 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	21	3,519	335	5,239	38	6,129	1,265
2016-17	22	3,806	357	5,269	29	6,223	1,422
2017-18	19	4,041	359	5,207	33	6,295	1,491
2018-19	17	4,128	363	5,129	29	6,187	1,524
2019-20	17	3,995	334	4,839	19	6,240	1,532
2020-21	18	4,135	369	4,932	20	5,958	1,513
2021-22	19	4,245	387	5,222	27	6,410	1,547
2022-23	20	4,246	358	5,172	27	6,288	1,546
2023-24	18	4,608	382	5,359	24	6,121	1,599
2024-25	31	4,607	409	5,415	23	6,133	1,670
Average	20	4,133	365	5,178	27	6,198	1,511

University of California-Santa Cruz Enrollment by Race Trends Chart

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

166 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 294.89% since 2015. The following table and chart illustrate the changes in the online student population by enrolled type at University of California-Santa Cruz from 2015 to 2025.

Year	Total Enrollment	Online Completely	Enrolled in Some Online Courses	Not Enrolled in Online Courses
2015-16	17,868	0	1,291	16,577
2016-17	18,783	0	803	17,980
2017-18	19,457	0	1,323	18,134
2018-19	19,700	0	853	18,847
2019-20	19,494	3	745	18,746
2020-21	19,161	16,945	1,647	569
2021-22	19,841	5,761	11,400	2,680
2022-23	19,478	98	4,070	15,310
2023-24	19,764	190	5,613	13,961
2024-25	19,938	166	5,098	14,674
Average	19,348	2,316	3,284	13,748

Most Searched California Colleges (last 30 days)

Undergraduate

University of California-Berkeley Public, 4-year | Berkeley
University of Southern California Private, 4-year | Los Angeles
Stanford University Private, 4-year | Stanford
University of California-Los Angeles Public, 4-year | Los Angeles
California State University-Long Beach Public, 4-year | Long Beach
University of California-Irvine Public, 4-year | Irvine
University of California-Santa Barbara Public, 4-year | Santa Barbara
University of California-San Diego Public, 4-year | La Jolla
San Diego State University Public, 4-year | San Diego
University of California-Davis Public, 4-year | Davis

compare schools

Graduate

California State University-Northridge Public, 4-year | Northridge
Notre Dame de Namur University Private, 4-year | Belmont
Northcentral University Private, 4-year | San Diego
University of California-Los Angeles Public, 4-year | Los Angeles
California Institute of Technology Private, 4-year | Pasadena
University of Southern California Private, 4-year | Los Angeles
Pepperdine University Private, 4-year | Malibu
University of California-Berkeley Public, 4-year | Berkeley
San Francisco State University Public, 4-year | San Francisco
San Jose State University Public, 4-year | San Jose

compare schools

Online Schools

Northcentral University Private, 4-year | San Diego
Academy of Art University Private, 4-year | San Francisco
Golden Gate University Private, 4-year | San Francisco
Diablo Valley College Public, 2-4 year | Pleasant Hill
National University Private, 4-year | San Diego
Stanford University Private, 4-year | Stanford
Point Loma Nazarene University Private, 4-year | San Diego
University of California-Santa Barbara Public, 4-year | Santa Barbara
California State University-Fullerton Public, 4-year | Fullerton
Santa Barbara City College Public, 2-4 year | Santa Barbara

compare schools

Trade Schools

UEI College-Sacramento Private, Less than 2-year | Sacramento
Casa Loma College-Los Angeles Private, 4-year | Sherman Oaks
Contra Costa Medical Career College Private, 2-4 year | Antioch
UEI College-Riverside Private, Less than 2-year | Riverside
Sacramento Ultrasound Institute Private, 2-4 year | Sacramento
CBD College Private, 4-year | Los Angeles
Pima Medical Institute-San Marcos Private, 2-4 year | San Marcos
CET-San Jose Private, Less than 2-year | San Jose
UEI College-Fresno Private, Less than 2-year | Fresno
American Career College-Los Angeles Private, 2-4 year | Los Angeles

compare schools

Enrollment Trends at UC Santa Cruz

Student Population Changes

Undergraduate Enrollment Changes

Graduate Enrollment Changes

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

Distance Learning (Online Courses) Enrollment Changes

Ratings & Review