Western Michigan University Student Population

How many students at WMU?

For the academic year 2024-2025, Western Michigan University has a total enrollment of 16,744 students, including 13,027 undergraduate and 3,717 graduate students.

• Gender Breakdown: 7,664 male students (45.8%) and 9,080 female students (54.2%) are attending .
• Race and Ethnicity Breakdown: The two largest race/ethnicity groups are 11,030 White students (65.9%) and 1,458 Hispanic students (8.7%).
• Class Level Breakdown: 13,027 undergraduate students (77.8%) and 3,717 graduate students (22.2%).
• Class Delivery: 2,238 students are enrolled online exclusively, while 7,676 students take a hybrid mix of online and on-campus courses.

Compared to similar public Research University (high research activity) - which average 16,875 - WMU's body is almost same.

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, 7,664 male (45.77%) and 9,080 female (54.23%) students are attending Western Michigan University. The number of male students per 100 females students (male-to-female ratio) is 84.41.

By class level, 13,027 (77.80%) are undergraduate students and 3,717 (22.20%) are graduate students. Among undergraduates, 48.33% are male and 51.67% are female, while among graduate students, 36.80% are male and 63.20% are female.

• Enrollment Trends

Student Distribution by Race/Ethnicity

By race/ethnicity, 11,030 White, 1,319 Black, and 563 Asian students out of a total of 16,744 are attending at Western Michigan University. Comprehensive enrollment statistic data by race/ethnicity is shown in the chart below (academic year 2024-2025 data).

Western Michigan University is somewhat diverse with a diversity index of 54.9% measured by Census Bureau Diversity Index. The institution shows moderate representation of multiple racial and ethnic groups.

• Total
• Undergraduate
• Graduate

Student Age Distribution

By age, WMU has 585 students under 18 years old and 18 students over 65 years old. There are 12,726 students under 25 years old, and 4,018 students over 25 years old out of 16,744 total students.

In undergraduate programs, 585 students are younger than 18 and 6 students are older than 65. WMU has 11,701 undergraduate students aged under 25 and 1,326 students aged 25 and over.

It has 1,025 graduate students aged under 25 and 2,692 students aged 25 and over.

• 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 Western Michigan University, 2,238 students are enrolled exclusively in online courses and 7,676 students are enrolled in some online courses.

2,062 students who live in Michigan or the jurisdiction in which the school is located are enrolled exclusively in online courses and 176 students live in another State or outside of the United States.

• Online Population
• By Locality

Transfer-in Students (Undergraduate)

Among 13,027 enrolled in undergraduate programs, 910 students have transferred-in from other institutions. The percentage of transfer-in students is 6.99%.736 students have transferred in as full-time status and 174 students transferred in as part-time status.