Boston University Student Population

How many students at BU?

For the academic year 2024-2025, Boston University has a total enrollment of 37,737 students, including 18,805 undergraduate and 18,932 graduate students.

• Gender Breakdown: 15,963 male students (42.3%) and 21,774 female students (57.7%) are attending .
• Race and Ethnicity Breakdown: The two largest race/ethnicity groups are 12,524 White students (33.2%) and 6,013 Asian students (15.9%).
• Class Level Breakdown: 18,805 undergraduate students (49.8%) and 18,932 graduate students (50.2%).
• Class Delivery: 5,423 students are enrolled online exclusively, while 1,354 students take a hybrid mix of online and on-campus courses.

Compared to similar private (not-for-profit) Research University (very high research activity) - which average 19,644 - BU's body is significantly larger.

Explore complete student demographics below, including gender ratio, race and ethnicity, age distribution, and distance learning statistics.

Enrollment by Gender and Class Level

By gender, 15,963 male (42.30%) and 21,774 female (57.70%) students are attending Boston University. The number of male students per 100 females students (male-to-female ratio) is 73.31.

By class level, 18,805 (49.83%) are undergraduate students and 18,932 (50.17%) are graduate students. Among undergraduates, 41.70% are male and 58.30% are female, while among graduate students, 42.90% are male and 57.10% are female.

• Enrollment Trends

Student Distribution by Race/Ethnicity

By race/ethnicity, 12,524 White, 1,929 Black, and 6,013 Asian students out of a total of 37,737 are attending at Boston University. Comprehensive enrollment statistic data by race/ethnicity is shown in the chart below (academic year 2024-2025 data).

Boston University is highly diverse with a diversity index of 84.8% 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, BU has 207 students under 18 years old and 107 students over 65 years old. There are 24,593 students under 25 years old, and 12,031 students over 25 years old out of 36,624 total students.

In undergraduate programs, 207 students are younger than 18 and 74 students are older than 65. BU has 18,108 undergraduate students aged under 25 and 548 students aged 25 and over.

It has 6,485 graduate students aged under 25 and 11,483 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 Boston University, 5,423 students are enrolled exclusively in online courses and 1,354 students are enrolled in some online courses.

1,090 students who live in Massachusetts or the jurisdiction in which the school is located are enrolled exclusively in online courses and 4,333 students live in another State or outside of the United States.

• Online Population
• By Locality

Transfer-in Students (Undergraduate)

Among 18,805 enrolled in undergraduate programs, 915 students have transferred-in from other institutions. The percentage of transfer-in students is 4.87%.912 students have transferred in as full-time status and 3 students transferred in as part-time status.