Higher education in the United States includes 19.0 million postsecondary students, a 1.5-million-person faculty, millions of annual degrees, and extensive public and private financial support. The figures below identify their measurement years and distinguish estimates, historical comparisons, and international benchmarks.
Table of contents
- Enrollment and distance education
- Aid and affordability
- Borrowing and debt
- Degrees and fields
- Faculty workforce
- Tuition and budgets
- Attainment and outcomes
Enrollment and distance education
U.S. postsecondary enrollment reached 19.0 million students in fall 2022, according to NCES Fast Facts: Back-to-School statistics. That total was 10% lower than fall 2012 enrollment. The comparison describes a decade-long change in the total student population; it does not identify the causes of that change.
Distance learning represented a substantial part of the fall 2022 enrollment picture. Some 10.1 million students were enrolled exclusively in distance education courses. Distance-only students represented 26% of total postsecondary enrollment, and 49% of those distance-only students were enrolled exclusively online. These measures should be kept distinct: the first is a student count, the second is a share of all enrollment, and the third is a share within the distance-only group. (NCES Fast Facts: Back-to-School statistics)
The figures also show why enrollment statistics benefit from a delivery-format breakdown. A single total can hide whether students attend in person, use distance education, or fall into a narrower exclusively online category. The fall 2022 measures provide all three reference points without treating them as interchangeable.
Aid and affordability
In 2019-20, 72% of all undergraduates received some type of financial aid. The average amount of aid received by undergraduates was $14,100. Federal aid reached 55% of undergraduates in 2019-20, exactly the same share reported for 2015-16. (NCES press release: Nearly Three-Quarters of Undergraduates Received Some Type of Financial Aid in 2019-20)
| Aid measure | 2015-16 | 2019-20 |
|---|---|---|
| Federal aid receipt | 55% | 55% |
| Pell Grant receipt | 39% | 40% |
| Direct Loan receipt | 36% | 34% |
Pell Grant receipt rose one percentage point across the two NCES years, while Direct Loan receipt declined two percentage points. The percentages refer to undergraduates receiving each form of support, not the amount spent. (NCES press release: Nearly Three-Quarters of Undergraduates Received Some Type of Financial Aid in 2019-20)
College Board Trends in Student Aid 2025 reports $275.1 billion in total aid to undergraduate and graduate students in 2024-25. Average aid per full-time-equivalent student was $16,810 for undergraduates and $29,160 for graduate students. Total grant aid was $173.7 billion, including $53.7 billion in federal grant aid. Pell Grant expenditures were $38.6 billion in 2024-25.
Institutional grant aid rose from $68.6 billion in 2014-15 to $85.1 billion in 2024-25. State grant aid per full-time-equivalent undergraduate increased from $920 in 2013-14 to $1,280 in 2023-24. In 2023-24, average state grant aid per full-time-equivalent undergraduate was under $200 in six states and over $2,000 in nine states. (College Board Trends in Student Aid 2025)
Pell Grant expenditures were $51.3 billion in 2010-11 and $29.2 billion in 2022-23, a 43% decline in 2024 dollars. The College Board presents this historical comparison in inflation-adjusted 2024 dollars, so it is not a nominal comparison of the amounts paid in each original year. (College Board Trends in Student Aid 2025)
Borrowing and debt
Total annual borrowing was $102.6 billion in 2024-25. It had declined 38%, from $163.9 billion in 2010-11 to $101.4 billion in 2023-24, before rising to the 2024-25 amount. These are annual sector-level borrowing totals, not average balances for individual students. (College Board Trends in Student Aid 2025)
The average amount borrowed by 2023-24 bachelor’s degree recipients who took out loans was $29,560. The corresponding average was $35,600 in 2013-14 and $35,310 in 2018-19. Because the measure covers recipients who borrowed, it should not be interpreted as the average debt of every bachelor’s degree recipient. (College Board Trends in Student Aid 2025)
In 2024-25, 24% of undergraduate students took out new federal Direct student loans. The comparable shares were 28% in 2019-20 and 33% in 2014-15. Within the 2024-25 undergraduate categories, 4% borrowed subsidized loans only, 5% borrowed unsubsidized loans only, and 15% borrowed both subsidized and unsubsidized federal loans. (College Board Trends in Student Aid 2025)
As of June 2025, 32% of borrowers owed less than $10,000 in federal loan debt, while 21% owed $10,000 to $20,000. The less-than-$10,000 group held 4% of outstanding federal debt; the $10,000-to-$20,000 group held 8%. By contrast, 11% of borrowers owing $80,000 or more held almost half, or 49%, of outstanding federal education loan debt. Borrower shares and debt shares therefore describe different features of the debt distribution. (College Board Trends in Student Aid 2025)
Degrees and fields
Postsecondary institutions conferred 3.0 million undergraduate degrees in 2021-22: 1.0 million associate’s degrees and 2.0 million bachelor’s degrees. (NCES Fast Facts: Most common undergraduate fields of study)
Among associate’s degrees, liberal arts and sciences, general studies, and humanities accounted for 383,300 degrees, or 38%. Health professions and related programs accounted for 177,400, or 18%, and business accounted for 113,100, or 11%. Engineering technologies accounted for 50,200, or 5%. Computer and information sciences and support services accounted for 34,800, or 3%, while homeland security, law enforcement, and firefighting accounted for 33,400, or 3%. (NCES Fast Facts: Most common undergraduate fields of study)
Bachelor’s degree production had a different numerical profile. Business accounted for 375,400 degrees, or 19%; health professions and related programs for 263,800, or 13%; social sciences and history for 151,100, or 7%; biological and biomedical sciences for 131,500, or 7%; psychology for 129,600, or 6%; and engineering for 123,000, or 6%. (NCES Fast Facts: Most common undergraduate fields of study)
The associate’s and bachelor’s figures are not interchangeable field rankings. They describe separate award levels and separate totals, so a field’s count or percentage should be compared within its own degree category.
Faculty workforce
The annual number of faculty at degree-granting postsecondary institutions was 1.5 million in both fall 2011 and fall 2022. The annual count peaked at 1.6 million in 2015. (NCES Fast Facts: Race/ethnicity of college faculty)
The full-time and part-time components moved in opposite directions. Full-time faculty increased 11%, from 762,100 in fall 2011 to 842,400 in fall 2022. Part-time faculty decreased 13%, from 762,400 to 665,200. The unchanged rounded total alongside different component counts illustrates why workforce statistics should include employment status. (NCES COE: Characteristics of Postsecondary Faculty)
Among full-time faculty in fall 2022, 72% were White: 35% White women and 37% White men. Asian faculty represented 13%, including 6% Asian women and 7% Asian men. Black faculty represented 7%, including 4% Black women and 3% Black men. Hispanic faculty represented 6%, including 3% Hispanic women and 3% Hispanic men. One percent were of two or more races. American Indian or Alaska Native faculty and Pacific Islander faculty each represented less than 0.5%. (NCES Fast Facts: Race/ethnicity of college faculty)
Rank-specific figures were also reported for fall 2022. White men represented 39% of professor-rank faculty and Asian men represented 8%. Among nonprofessor-rank faculty, White men represented 33% and Asian men represented 5%. (NCES Fast Facts: Race/ethnicity of college faculty)
Tuition and budgets
Average published tuition and fees in 2025-26 were $11,950 at public four-year in-state colleges, $31,880 at public four-year out-of-state colleges, $4,150 at public two-year in-district colleges, and $45,000 at private nonprofit four-year colleges. Compared with 2024-25, those amounts rose by $340, or 2.9%; $1,060, or 3.4%; $110, or 2.7%; and $1,750, or 4.0%, respectively. (College Board Trends in College Pricing 2025)
| Institution type, 2025-26 | Published tuition and fees |
|---|---|
| Public two-year, in-district | $4,150 |
| Public four-year, in-state | $11,950 |
| Public four-year, out-of-state | $31,880 |
| Private nonprofit four-year | $45,000 |
Average budgets for full-time undergraduate students ranged from $21,320 at public two-year in-district colleges to $65,470 at private nonprofit four-year colleges. These budgets are broader measures than published tuition and fees, so they should not be substituted for one another. (College Board Trends in College Pricing 2025)
Attainment and outcomes
OECD Education at a Glance 2024: United States reports that 6% of U.S. 25-34 year-olds did not have upper secondary educational attainment in 2023. The U.S. share was 8 percentage points below the OECD average and had fallen by 3 percentage points between 2016 and 2023.
Among U.S. 18-24 year-olds, 14.1% were not in education, employment, or training in 2023. That was 0.4 percentage points above the OECD average of 13.7%. (OECD Education at a Glance 2024: United States)
Women accounted for 54% of first-time entrants to tertiary education in the United States in 2023, up from 53% in 2013. In 2024, 11% of U.S. 25-34 year-olds held a master’s or equivalent degree, below the OECD average of 16%. (OECD Education at a Glance 2025: United States)
The OECD also reports a 21% U.S. wage gap between workers without upper secondary attainment and those with upper secondary attainment. The wage gap between workers with upper secondary and tertiary attainment was 71%. These are reported group-level wage-gap measures, not individual earnings forecasts. (OECD Education at a Glance 2025: United States)
Finally, the six-year graduation rate for students who began seeking a bachelor’s degree at a four-year institution in fall 2014 was 64%. That NCES measure concerns a defined entering cohort and six-year completion window, rather than all postsecondary students. (NCES Fast Facts: Undergraduate graduation rates)