Enrollment Trends at MECC

Student Population Changes

The average student population over the last 11 years is 2,335 where 2,116 students are attending the school for the academic year 2024-2025.

Total enrollment fluctuated between 2016 and 2025, with 3 year-over-year increases and 6 decreases. It peaked at 2,737 students in 2017 and was lowest at 1,928 in 2023. Overall, enrollment dropped from 2,718 to 2,116 students, a net loss of 602 (22.1%).

The following table and chart illustrate the changes in student population by gender at Mountain Empire Community College since 2015.

• Trends Table
• By Gender Chart
• Downloadable Chart

Year	Total	Men	Women
2015-16	2,718	1,072	1,646
2016-17	2,737 19	1,086 14	1,651 5
2017-18	2,684 -53	1,068 -18	1,616 -35
2018-19	2,506 -178	1,000 -68	1,506 -110
2019-20	2,313 -193	886 -114	1,427 -79
2020-21	2,253 -60	823 -63	1,430 3
2021-22	2,079 -174	776 -47	1,303 -127
2022-23	1,928 -151	718 -58	1,210 -93
2023-24	2,015 87	786 68	1,229 19
2024-25	2,116 101	819 33	1,297 68
Average	2,335	903	1,432

Enrollment by Race/Ethnicity Changes

The percentage of white students is 92.58%. The percentage was 94.70% 10 years ago and MECC still has a high percentage of white students. 0.33% of enrolled students is Asian and 2.17% is black students. Hispanic students comprise 1.98% of the student body.

Over the past 10 years, the racial composition has shifted. The percentage of white students decreased from 94.70% to 92.58%. Asian enrollment declined from 0.48% to 0.33%. Black student enrollment increased from 1.80% to 2.17%. Hispanic student representation expanded from 1.29% to 1.98%.

The overall racial diversity, measured by the Census Bureau Diversity Index, is 0.1416 which indicates that not very diverse. This increased from 0.1025 a decade ago, suggesting that racial diversity has improved.

The following table and chart illustrate the student population trends by race/ethnicity at Mountain Empire Community College 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	6	13	49	35	1	2,574	33
2016-17	6	10	50	37	2	2,587	37
2017-18	9	5	40	43	1	2,526	48
2018-19	8	6	34	32	0	2,376	45
2019-20	7	7	43	28	2	2,170	37
2020-21	5	7	24	26	2	2,103	36
2021-22	1	13	31	24	15	1,930	35
2022-23	1	12	33	41	1	1,776	38
2023-24	2	8	41	45	0	1,854	44
2024-25	2	7	46	42	0	1,959	45
Average	5	9	39	35	2	2,186	40