College Dropout Rates [2023] - US Statistics and Data (2024)

FAQs

What is the US college dropout rate and dropout statistics? ›

In four-year institutions, 56% of students tend to drop out after six years (What to Become, 2021). Students aged between 24-29 are most likely to drop out of four-year colleges, as 52.5% of them have already left without a degree (What to Become, 2021).

Approximately 24% of first-time, undergraduate first-year students dropped out between 2019 and 2020. In 2021, approximately 1.4 million Americans had completed 4 or more years of college but had no degree. Based on six years of data, men have a 4 % higher dropout rate than women.

College Dropout Statistics Revolving Around Finances

55% of college students struggle to find financial support for their studies. Consequently, 51% of college dropouts drop out because of the lack of money. 79% of the students delay their graduations due to financial difficulties.

Key graduation rate statistics

Public colleges have an average graduation rate of 63 percent, and private nonprofit schools have a rate of 68 percent. Women are more likely than men to graduate within six years of starting their degree program.

While financial issues are probably the most common reason for dropping out of college, every student has their own reasons. Some unfortunately have family issues, a lack of support, or unexpected medical problems that are beyond their control.

This is much higher compared to the overall average dropout rate of 5.1% (NCES, 2021).

38% of College Students Drop Out Because of Finances – How to Lower That Number. The benefits of getting a college degree are sound. The College Board shows that graduates earn 73% more than those only completing high school, while those with advanced degrees earn two to three times more.

The states with the highest percentage of students not graduating on time were New Mexico (28.9%) and Oregon (23.3%). On-time graduation rates are lowest in Wheeler County, Oregon, where 74% of children fail to complete high school on time.

Seventeen percent of students enrolled in college say they're dropping out of college after this semester, according to education website Intelligent.com. Its survey of 1,250 undergraduate students expected to graduate in 2023 found another 19% of students aren't sure if they'll return to college this autumn.

Are most college dropouts successful? ›

Based on these numbers, the college dropout success rate is only at around 6%. There is no guarantee of financial success if one chooses to leave school and pursue an interest that could possibly be translated into a scalable business.

Among students at four-year colleges, two of every five do NOT complete their college degree. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, the six-year graduation rate is only 64% for all students seeking bachelor's degrees.

Total U.S. College Enrollment Statistics

In spring 2022: 17.9 million students were enrolled at a postsecondary institution. About 15 million students were enrolled in an undergraduate program. Roughly 3.1 million were enrolled in a graduate-level program.

The 6-year graduation rate was 63 percent at public institutions, 68 percent at private nonprofit institutions, and 29 percent at private for-profit institutions. The overall 6-year graduation rate was 60 percent for males and 67 percent for females.

The percentage of adults in the U. S. between the ages of 25 to 64 with college degrees, certificates, or industry-recognized certifications, has increased from 37.9% in 2009 to 53.7% in 2021, a gain of nearly 16 percentage points.

Academic difficulties and the family's economic needs are two of the most common reasons kids drop out of school. In some cases, it might also be due to the company of bad friends. However, not having a basic education might not have a good impact on a child's future since it limits their employment opportunities.

Economic Impacts of College Dropouts

College dropouts borrow more money on average to pay for school than their counterparts who complete their degrees. They are also left with less ability to pay back their student loan debt, as dropouts earn less and have higher rates of unemployment than those with degrees.

A college education is widely perceived as unaffordable for most Americans, with 77% of U.S. adults saying a college degree would be difficult for someone like them to afford. 82% of women said a college degree would be difficult to afford, compared with 73% of men.

4. Most people who drop out of college are first-year students. On average, 24.1% of first-time first-year students leave college. The percentage of students who drop out of two-year institutions in the first year is 39%, while 18.4% of those who enroll in 4-year institutions do the same.

What is the most dropped college class? ›

Computer sciences and business and administrative studies are among the degree subjects with the highest drop-out rates; with around nine per cent of students dropping out by their second year.

Four metropolitan areas in California rank among the highest in the country for high-school dropouts, according to our analysis of the 2008 Census data. Bakersfield, California, has the most high-school dropouts in the country for metropolitan areas with more than 500,000 people.

The overall status dropout rate for 16- to 24-year-olds decreased from 7.4 percent in 2010 to 5.3 percent in 2020. During this time, the status dropout rate declined for those who were Hispanic (from 15.1 to 7.4 percent) and Black (from 8.0 to 4.2 percent).

Indeed, according to a study by U.K. job site Adview, one in eight of the Forbes 400, which are the 400 wealthiest billionaires in the U.S., are college dropouts. They came to this conclusion by looking at the 362 billionaires with publicly available education information; 44 were dropouts.

The Hungry and Homeless College Report states that ²: Nearly 50 percent of college students experience housing insecurity, such as the inability to pay rent, inability to pay utilities, or the necessity to move frequently.

64% of students drop out of college because of mental health problems. In a survey conducted by the National Alliance on Mental Illness, a strong correlation between the number of students who drop out of college and depression was discovered.

In last place was West Virginia. It was worst for educational attainment and 47th for quality of education. Also in the bottom five were Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi. The WalletHub survey compared 18 metrics that examined what it considered the key factors of a well-educated population.

Georgia had the lowest overall graduation rate in the nation with 54% of students graduating, followed by Nevada, Florida, and Washington, D.C. Iowa had the highest overall graduation rate with 93%, followed by North Dakota, Wisconsin, and Nebraska.

According to this hierarchy, the country with the lowest annual average rate of school dropout is Slovenia, with an average rate of 5.2%. The country with the highest school dropout rate is Malta, with 40.5%.

Overall, statewide dropout rates for 2019–20 also remained largely stable at 8.9 percent, compared to 9 percent the previous year.

Is college education declining? ›

Nationwide, undergraduate college enrollment dropped 8% from 2019 to 2022, with declines even after returning to in-person classes, according to data from the National Student Clearinghouse. The slide in the college-going rate since 2018 is the steepest on record, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Students who take out loans to attend college but never finish are three times as likely to default, earn lower incomes throughout their lives, and have higher rates of unemployment. That leaves billions of taxpayers' significant federal investment in higher education wasted.

Among his many outlandish career moves is one that dates back to 1995 when he dropped out of Stanford after only two days at the prestigious institution. After earning two bachelor's degrees, one of which was from the University of Pennsylvania, Musk entered a Stanford Ph. D. program in physics at the age of 24.

Kanye's first number one record on the Hot 100, and ultimately the track that put “The College Dropout” over the top.

Failing & Then Re-Taking a Class

Croskey notes that dropping a class is better than withdrawing, but withdrawing is better than failing. “A failing grade will lower the student's GPA, which may prevent a student from participating in a particular major that has a GPA requirement,” Croskey says.

Altogether, 'The College Dropout' contains 14 samples.

Of the 21 tracks on his very first album, 14 samples were used on 12 songs. Most notably you'll recognise Luther Vandross' 'House Is Not A Home' on 'Slow Jamz,' Chaka Khan's 'Through The Fire' on 'Through The Wire' and Marvin Gaye's 'Distant Lover' on 'Spaceship.

Associate Professor of Health Behavior and Health Education

It found that 44% of students reported symptoms of depression, 37% reported anxiety disorders and 15% reported having seriously considered suicide in the past year—the highest recorded rates in the history of the 15-year-old survey.

In 2019, the percent of population with college degrees is about 35% of the entire United States population completed four years of college, and an average of 47.5% of adults in the U.S. earned a degree. What is this?

Data Summary. In 2022, over three-quarters of college students (77%) experienced moderate to serious psychological distress. 35% of students were diagnosed with anxiety; 27% had depression.

Among them, there are 1.9 million students who earned bachelor's degrees and 989,000 are graduates with an associate degree. 49,8% of college graduates earn bachelor's degrees. The percentage of students who hold associate degrees is 23.5%.

Who is most likely to graduate from college? ›

In a reversal, women are now more likely than men to graduate from college, according to the Current Population Survey. In 2021, 39% of women ages 25 and older had a bachelor's degree or more education, compared with 37% of men in the same age range.

The evidence that a college degree significantly improves one's employment prospects and earnings potential is overwhelming. Bachelor's degree holders are half as likely to be unemployed as their peers who only have a high school degree and they make $1.2 million in additional earnings on average over their lifetime.

Colleges and universities issued 176,307 bachelor's degrees in education that year, or 21% of all degrees conferred. Women, in particular, have become much less likely to choose education as their field of study.

Overall, the return on an investment in a higher education is strong, as people with bachelor's degrees make on average 84 percent more over their lifetimes than people with only high school diplomas, according to the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce.

Dropout Rate

The default interpretation of the dropout hyperparameter is the probability of training a given node in a layer, where 1.0 means no dropout, and 0.0 means no outputs from the layer. A good value for dropout in a hidden layer is between 0.5 and 0.8. Input layers use a larger dropout rate, such as of 0.8.

Every year, over 1.2 million students drop out of high school in the United States alone. That's a student every 26 seconds – or 7,000 a day. About 25% of high school freshmen fail to graduate from high school on time.

Based on these numbers, the college dropout success rate is only at around 6%. There is no guarantee of financial success if one chooses to leave school and pursue an interest that could possibly be translated into a scalable business.

Overall, statewide dropout rates for 2019–20 also remained largely stable at 8.9 percent, compared to 9 percent the previous year.

This is much higher compared to the overall average dropout rate of 5.1% (NCES, 2021).

How do you find the dropout rate? ›

The formula to calculate the annual dropout rate is the number of students who dropped out during the school year divided by the number of students enrolled during the school year.

The states with the highest percentage of students not graduating on time were New Mexico (28.9%) and Oregon (23.3%). On-time graduation rates are lowest in Wheeler County, Oregon, where 74% of children fail to complete high school on time.

College Enrollment Trends Over the Years

In 2021, 61.8% of recent high school graduates ages 16-24 were enrolled in college, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. The U.S. experienced a college enrollment decline during the COVID-19 pandemic.

More than four in ten students at public four-year universities complete their degree with zero debt. Nearly eight in ten students graduate with less than $30,000 in debt. Among those who do borrow, the average debt at graduation is $25,921 — or $6,480 for each year of a four-year degree at a public university.