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On Campus Blog
Alex Friedrich

Enrollment drops in Minnesota, Midwest higher than in other states

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While I was researching yesterday's story on how Minnesota enrollment has returned to its pre-recession levels, the state Office of Higher Education analysts pointed me to this recent federal report.

The report, released last week, shows Minnesota has had the ninth-biggest yearly enrollment drop among U.S. states and the District of Columbia since 2011 (see the chart below).

(Institutions that teach students in multiple states are in a separate group called “multi-state institutions.” Their enrollment is not included in the individual state totals.)

The Chronicle of Higher Education touches on the regional angle:

Regional differences were largely due to demographics.

Enrollments dropped by 2.6 percent in the Midwest, 0.9 percent in the South, 0.7 percent in the West, and 0.3 percent in the Northeast, where the large concentration of private colleges drew a welcome influx of out-of-state students.

Eleven out of 12 states in the Midwest saw decreases, largely because of the disproportionate and early drop in the number of high-school graduates. Their numbers peaked in 2007-8, while the other three regions were projected to peak in 2010-11.