The community college sector continued to see enrollment increases this fall, again led by dual-enrollment growth, but it remains about 250,000 short of its pre-pandemic levels, according to new findings.
Undergraduate enrollment across all higher education sectors grew 1.2% in fall 2025, driven primarily by a 3% increase (173,000 more students) in enrollments at community colleges and a 1.4% increase (an additional 91,000 students) at public four-year colleges, according to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center’s final report on fall enrollments.
Strong growth in undergraduate certificates and associate degrees persisted this fall, with both increasing 1.9% and 2.2%, respectively, compared to a 0.9% bump in baccalaureate programs. The report notes that after four consecutive years of increases, community colleges now enroll 752,000 students in certificate programs, representing a 28.3% increase since fall 2021.
Community colleges even saw another boost in international students this fall. Enrollments continued a steady increase of 4.5% this fall, following a 5.2% increase last fall and 6.2% in fall 2023.
Dual enrollment — high school students ages 17 and younger taking college courses — also continues its upward trend, seeing a 5.9% increase (66,000 new students) at community colleges. Dual enrollment this fall reached 1.19 million students, representing nearly 20% of all community college students, according to the findings.
Meanwhile, the enrollment rate for community college freshmen substantially slowed down. It increased 0.5% this fall, compared to 6.7%, 2.5% and 6.3% in fall 2024, 2023 and 2022, respectively, the report says.
Enrollment in all sectors increased by 2.4% for 18-year-old freshmen, who comprise nearly three-quarters of freshmen, while for all other ages it declined, the data show. The largest drop was among freshmen ages 25 or older, down -15.5% (35,000 students), with public two-year colleges accounting for more than 40% of that decrease.
A closer look at freshmen
At community colleges, traditional 18-year-old freshmen saw a 3.1% increase this fall, compared to 5.1% the previous fall. Freshmen ages 19 to 20 also saw an increase, up 1.2%, compared to 1.7% in fall 2024.
But there were decreases among older community college freshmen. For those who are ages 21 to 24, enrollments decreased -0.4%, after seeing large gains the past three years (17.8% in fall 2024, 13.3% in fall 2023 and 8.5% in fall 2022).
Freshmen 25 or older saw a double-digit drop: -11.7%. That follows large increases over the previous four years — 15.6% (2024), 13% (2023), 4.5% (2022) and 10% (2021). (See, graph below.)
However, adults ages 25 to 29 still comprise 10.4% of all community college students, the Clearinghouse data show. Their enrollment increased by 3.4% (20,600 additional students) this fall. Those 30 and older comprise 19.3% of total community college enrollment, up 0.1% (1,698 new students) in fall 2025.
Clearinghouse officials didn’t speculate on what may account for those decreases among older community college freshmen, but they noted declines in other credential areas, such as master’s degrees, that primarily serve older students.
