The National Student Clearinghouse Research Center has released new data on enrollment and persistence and retention trends in U.S. higher education, revealing significant improvements in the number of Black students attending college and advancing toward graduation.
Overall, postsecondary enrollment in the Spring 2026 semester totaled 18.6 million students, up 1.0 percent from Spring 2025. Undergraduate enrollment increased by 1.3 percent, while graduate enrollment held steady. Public institutions saw the greatest increase in undergraduate enrollment, growing 3.1 percent at community colleges and 1.4 percent at public four-year institutions. In contrast, undergraduate enrollment at private institutions was essentially unchanged.
During the Spring 2026 semester, there were more than 1.86 million Black undergraduate students and roughly 364,000 Black graduate students enrolled at U.S. colleges and universities. Compared to the Spring 2025 semester, Black undergraduate enrollment increased by 3.4 percent and Black graduate enrollment increased by 6.5 percent. Similar gains in enrollment were shown among Hispanic and multiracial students. Among White students, undergraduate enrollment increased by 1.0 percent, while graduate enrollment remained unchanged. Asian students’ enrollment increased by 1.2 percent at the undergraduate level and 1.0 percent at the graduate level.
Among the cohort of students who entered college in Fall 2024, 85.8 percent persisted to the Spring 2025 term and 77.1 percent persisted to the Fall 2025 term. Most Fall 2024 starters stayed at their initial institution, with an 83.2 retention rate for the Spring 2025 term and a 69.1 retention rate for Fall 2025. These figures were unchanged compared to Fall 2023 starters.
Black students in the Fall 2024 starting cohort saw notable one-year gains in persistence and retention, showing the highest second fall persistence and retention over the last decade. Among Black students who entered college in Fall 2024, 70 percent were still enrolled in college by Fall 2025, an increase of 1.4 percent compared to the prior starting cohort. Retention rates for Black students also increased, rising from 58.6 percent among Fall 2023 starters to 59.6 percent for Fall 2024 starters. As with patterns in enrollment, Hispanic and multiracial students also saw notable improvements in persistence and retention, while White students’ rates stayed the same and Asian students’ rates saw smaller increases.
