Enrollment Trends at Central Lakes College-Brainerd

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 4,342 where 4,981 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 5 year-over-year increases and 4 decreases. It peaked at 4,981 students in 2025 and was lowest at 3,784 in 2018. Overall, enrollment rose from 4,274 to 4,981 students, a net gain of 707 (16.5%).

The following table and chart illustrate the changes in student population by gender at Central Lakes College-Brainerd since 2015.

• Trends Table
• By Gender Chart
• Downloadable Chart

Year	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	4,274	1,923	2,351
2016-17	3,888 -386	1,691 -232	2,197 -154
2017-18	3,784 -104	1,662 -29	2,122 -75
2018-19	4,029 245	1,684 22	2,345 223
2019-20	4,357 328	1,765 81	2,592 247
2020-21	4,491 134	1,828 63	2,663 71
2021-22	4,448 -43	1,819 -9	2,629 -34
2022-23	4,633 185	1,919 100	2,714 85
2023-24	4,532 -101	1,923 4	2,609 -105
2024-25	4,981 449	2,111 188	2,870 261
Average	4,342	1,833	2,509

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 80.75%. The percentage was 85.66% 10 years ago and Central Lakes College-Brainerd still has a high percentage of white students. 0.56% of enrolled students is Asian and 2.23% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 3.91% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 85.66% to 80.75%. Asian enrollment declined from 0.70% to 0.56%. Black student enrollment decreased from 3.07% to 2.23%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 2.34% to 3.91%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.3446 which indicates that somewhat diverse. This increased from 0.2637 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Central Lakes College-Brainerd over the past 11 years (2015-2025).

• Trends Table
• Interactive Chart
• Downloadable Chart

Year	American Indian or Native American	Asian	Black	Hispanic	Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander	White	Two or More Races
	2015-16	43	30	131	100	5	3,661	131
2016-17	29	21	112	96	5	3,421	130
2017-18	40	30	118	91	3	3,296	137
2018-19	42	30	88	91	4	3,548	154
2019-20	38	31	97	142	1	3,774	155
2020-21	32	33	82	137	0	3,884	155
2021-22	44	41	91	128	0	3,761	157
2022-23	48	41	114	140	0	3,865	146
2023-24	38	35	129	155	0	3,712	156
2024-25	59	28	111	195	1	4,022	169
Average	41	32	107	128	2	3,694	149