The Sunshine State joined 39 other states in the nation who saw their number of college students decline in 2015. Just under 1 million students in Florida were enrolled in college during the spring semester, down 4.2% from the previous year according to the National Student Clearinghouse.
Enrollments around the nation are down as well, falling 1.9% compared to last year. While the report doesn’t make disaggregated data available at the state level, national figures seem to suggest that the downward trend is due to adults over 24 leaving college to enter or return to the workforce.
The National Student Clearinghouse data accounts for 96.5% of enrollments at all Title IV, degree-granting institutions in the nation and come directly from college and university registrars. To learn more about state and national enrollment trends, read the full report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.