Northern Illinois University Student Population

How many students at Northern Illinois? For the academic year 2024-2025, a total of 15,414 students have enrolled in Northern Illinois University with 11,348 undergraduate and 4,066 graduate students.

By gender, 6,960 male and 8,454 female students are attending the school.

It has relatively fewer students compared to similar colleges (16,875 students on average - public Research University (high research activity)).

2,197 students are enrolled exclusively, and 7,937 students are enrolled in some online courses.

You can check the student demographics by gender ratio, race/ethnicity, age distribution, and online enrollment.

Student Population by Gender

Northern Illinois University has a total of 15,414 enrolled students for the academic year 2024-2025. 11,348 students have enrolled in undergraduate programs and 4,066 students joined graduate programs.

By gender, 6,960 male and 8,454 female students (the male-female ratio is 45:55) are attending the school.

• Enrollment Trends

Student Distribution by Race/Ethnicity

By race/ethnicity, 6,831 White, 2,741 Black, and 921 Asian students out of a total of 15,414 are attending at Northern Illinois University. Comprehensive enrollment statistic data by race/ethnicity is shown in the chart below (academic year 2024-2025 data).

Northern Illinois University is quite diverse with a diversity index of 71.9% measured by Census Bureau Diversity Index. The institution demonstrates strong racial and ethnic diversity among its student body.

• Total
• Undergraduate
• Graduate

Student Age Distribution

By age, Northern Illinois has 3,185 students under 18 years old and 51 students over 65 years old. There are 11,324 students under 25 years old, and 4,180 students over 25 years old out of 15,504 total students.

In undergraduate programs, 3,185 students are younger than 18 and 28 students are older than 65. Northern Illinois has 10,251 undergraduate students aged under 25 and 1,107 students aged 25 and over.

It has 1,073 graduate students aged under 25 and 3,073 students aged 25 and over.

*The age distribution is based on 2023-2024 enrollment data.

• Total
• Undergraduate
• Graduate

Online Student Enrollment

Distance learning, also called online education, is very attractive to students, especially those who want to continue education and work in the field. At Northern Illinois University, 2,197 students are enrolled exclusively in online courses and 7,937 students are enrolled in some online courses.

2,012 students who live in Illinois or the jurisdiction in which the school is located are enrolled exclusively in online courses and 185 students live in another State or outside of the United States.

• Online Population
• By Locality

Transfer-in Students (Undergraduate)

Among 11,348 enrolled in undergraduate programs, 1,461 students have transferred-in from other institutions. The percentage of transfer-in students is 12.87%.1,238 students have transferred in as full-time status and 223 students transferred in as part-time status.