Distance Enrollment After the Pandemic
National enrollment fell through 2021–22, then rose for three years. Online participation stayed broadly stable through provisional 2024–25 data.
Did national 12-month enrollment recover after the pandemic-era decline?
National enrollment fell in 2020–21 and 2021–22, then increased for three periods. It reached 26,306,147 students in 2024–25, 3.73% above 2023–24. A fixed panel of 3,869 colleges shows the same direction, reducing the risk that changing reporter counts explain the reversal.
What share of students took all, some, or no courses online in 2024–25?
Among 3,476 colleges with all three categories, 28.80% of students took all courses online, 36.14% took some online, and 35.06% took none online. That places 64.94% in at least one online course. Colleges missing any category remain outside the complete-case denominator; unavailable values are not zero.
How did undergraduate and graduate online participation differ?
Graduate students were more likely to study fully online: 40.73% versus 26.72% for undergraduates. Undergraduates were more likely to take some, but not all, courses online. The published categories reconcile exactly to each complete-case student-level total.
Which colleges and administrative families were largest, and how does that compare with On EdTech’s framing?
Western Governors University and Southern New Hampshire University led individual-college totals. Multi-college OPEID-root families produce a different ranking and should remain separate because the shared identifier does not prove joint governance. The fixed-universe results broadly reproduce On EdTech’s 3.7% growth and roughly two-thirds online-participation framing, with differences explained by population and missing-data choices.
What does the six-period evidence say about enrollment recovery and the post-pandemic online mix?
National enrollment recovered, while the online-course mix remained broadly stable
National 12-month enrollment declined through 2021–22. It then increased for three consecutive periods.
Enrollment reached 26,306,147 students in 2024–25. This was a 3.73% increase from 2023–24.
The six-period balanced panel shows the same direction. Its 3,869 colleges enrolled 26,008,762 students in 2024–25.
Neither series shows a sustained trend across all six periods. Both reverse from decline to growth.
Enrollment declined twice, then increased three times
The attached chart encodes Population type in every plotted row.
Its two values are Annual population and Six-period balanced panel. Each row also contains enrollment period and published enrollment.
| Enrollment period | Annual enrollment | Annual change | Balanced-panel enrollment | Panel change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2019–20 | 25,796,311 | — | 25,274,957 | — |
| 2020–21 | 25,040,399 | −2.93% | 24,549,516 | −2.87% |
| 2021–22 | 24,561,449 | −1.91% | 24,114,912 | −1.77% |
| 2022–23 | 24,602,705 | +0.17% | 24,244,494 | +0.54% |
| 2023–24* | 25,359,734 | +3.08% | 25,058,578 | +3.36% |
| 2024–25* | 26,306,147 | +3.73% | 26,008,762 | +3.79% |
The annual population changed from 4,310 colleges in 2019–20 to 4,091 in 2024–25.
The balanced panel keeps the same 3,869 colleges in every period.
About 65% took at least one online course in 2024–25
Among all-student complete cases, 28.80% took all courses online in 2024–25.
Another 36.14% took some courses online, while 35.06% took no courses online.
Together, 64.94% took at least one online course. The calculation covers 3,476 colleges reporting all three categories.
The attached composition table shows undergraduate and graduate results. It also shows contributing colleges and unavailable category values.
Graduate students were more likely to study fully online
The undergraduate complete-case population contains 3,237 colleges and 21,075,966 students.
Undergraduates were 26.72% all online, 38.75% some online, and 34.53% not online.
The graduate complete-case population contains 1,812 colleges and 3,816,263 students.
Graduate students were 40.73% all online, 22.31% some online, and 36.96% not online.
The three categories equal the published total for each complete-case student level. Both reconciliation differences are zero.
The modality mix stayed stable under a descriptive rule
The all-online shares were 28.72%, 28.50%, and 28.80% from 2022–23 through 2024–25.
The some-online shares were 36.32%, 36.19%, and 36.14%.
The no-online shares were 34.95%, 35.31%, and 35.06%.
The stability rule required every adjacent share change to remain within one percentage point.
The largest adjacent change was 0.36 percentage points. The three-period mix meets that descriptive rule.
This result is descriptive. It is not a statistical-significance test.
WGU and SNHU led individual colleges
Western Governors University ranked first by total and all-online enrollment in 2024–25.
It reported 313,774 total students and 313,774 all-online students.
Southern New Hampshire University ranked second under both measures.
It reported 304,418 total students and 292,445 all-online students.
Both exceeded 300,000 in total enrollment. Only WGU exceeded 300,000 in all-online enrollment.
These are individual IPEDS reporting colleges. They are not combined administrative families.
Multi-college administrative families produce different leaders
A family here contains at least two colleges sharing one six-digit OPEID root.
That root is a federal-aid administrative identifier. It does not prove shared governance or joint operations.
OPEID root 001081 ranked first by both family measures in 2024–25.
Its two colleges reported 195,560 total students and 113,739 all-online students.
WGU and SNHU each appear as one reporting college. They do not qualify for the multi-college family ranking.
Family all-online totals include published values only. An unavailable college value remains separate and is never treated as zero.
The IPEDS results broadly support On EdTech’s framing
On EdTech framed annual enrollment growth as 3.7%. The comparable fixed-universe result is 3.73%.
The article described an approximate 31% all-online, 35% some-online, and 34% no-online mix.
The reproducible complete-case result is 28.80%, 36.14%, and 35.06%.
The article placed participation in at least one online course near 66%. The reproducible result is 64.94%.
These differences reflect population and coverage choices.
The fixed universe covers E12 reporters in the 50 states and District of Columbia. It uses same-cycle sector codes 1 through 6.
Complete-case shares exclude colleges that did not publish all three categories.
In 2024–25, 554 colleges lacked an all-online value. Another 615 lacked some-online, and 61 lacked no-online.
These values remain unavailable. They are not converted to zero.
The serving results do not contain the article’s adjusted-sector classification. Results depending on that adjustment cannot be reproduced here.
Exact IPEDS periods and releases
The analysis uses these National Center for Education Statistics IPEDS E12 releases:
- 2019–20 enrollment: 2020–21 revised release, published November 9, 2022.
- 2020–21 enrollment: 2021–22 revised release, published December 7, 2023.
- 2021–22 enrollment: 2022–23 revised release, published November 22, 2024.
- 2022–23 enrollment: 2023–24 revised release, published December 30, 2025.
- 2023–24 enrollment: 2024–25 provisional release, published January 6, 2026.
- 2024–25 enrollment: 2025–26 provisional release, published July 21, 2026.
The latest period runs from July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025.
Its exact release is ipeds-e12-2025-26-provisional-2026-07-21.
*The 2023–24 and 2024–25 enrollment results are provisional. Later IPEDS releases may revise them.
Enrollment fell through 2021–22, then rose through 2024–25
Annual enrollment and a fixed panel of 3,869 colleges both declined through 2021–22, then rose through 2024–25. Separate panels keep the changing annual population distinct from the balanced panel.
| Population type | Enrollment period | Published 12-month enrollment | Coverage State | Publication Date | Release Stage | Source Release Id |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Annual population | 2019-20 | 25,796,311 | observed | 2022-11-09 | revised | ipeds-e12-2020-21-revised-2022-11-09 |
| Six-period balanced panel | 2019-20 | 25,274,957 | observed | 2022-11-09 | revised | ipeds-e12-2020-21-revised-2022-11-09 |
| Annual population | 2020-21 | 25,040,399 | observed | 2023-12-07 | revised | ipeds-e12-2021-22-revised-2023-12-07 |
| Six-period balanced panel | 2020-21 | 24,549,516 | observed | 2023-12-07 | revised | ipeds-e12-2021-22-revised-2023-12-07 |
| Annual population | 2021-22 | 24,561,449 | observed | 2024-11-22 | revised | ipeds-e12-2022-23-revised-2024-11-22 |
| Six-period balanced panel | 2021-22 | 24,114,912 | observed | 2024-11-22 | revised | ipeds-e12-2022-23-revised-2024-11-22 |
| Annual population | 2022-23 | 24,602,705 | observed | 2025-12-30 | revised | ipeds-e12-2023-24-revised-2025-12-30 |
| Six-period balanced panel | 2022-23 | 24,244,494 | observed | 2025-12-30 | revised | ipeds-e12-2023-24-revised-2025-12-30 |
| Annual population | 2023-24 | 25,359,734 | observed | 2026-01-06 | provisional | ipeds-e12-2024-25-provisional-2026-01-06 |
| Six-period balanced panel | 2023-24 | 25,058,578 | observed | 2026-01-06 | provisional | ipeds-e12-2024-25-provisional-2026-01-06 |
| Annual population | 2024-25 | 26,306,147 | observed | 2026-07-21 | provisional | ipeds-e12-2025-26-provisional-2026-07-21 |
| Six-period balanced panel | 2024-25 | 26,008,762 | observed | 2026-07-21 | provisional | ipeds-e12-2025-26-provisional-2026-07-21 |