Online Student Enrollment Statistics

As many as 11.2 million students in the USA take online classes
68% of students enrolled in online education are working adults or returning students – students going back to college after a break of 1 semester or more to complete a course they have started
Less than half (46%) of online students are full-time
1 in 5 (22%) graduate students
30% of all students take at least one class online
39% of college freshmen prefer to take their online courses at home, while 30% want to take courses in a hybrid setup
33% of online students completed their coursework using their smartphones and tablets
2.79 million students are enrolled at primarily online colleges – almost 15% of all college students
62% of students at online schools are female
39% of college freshmen prefer online courses that they can take from home
30% prefer a hybrid structure with some aspect of in-person learning

Online college attendance by race

Primarily online colleges are defined as colleges where more than 90% of the student body engages in distance learning.

White students are significantly more likely to attend a traditional, in-person college than they are to attend an online college
Online schools enroll more racially diverse student bodies than conventional schools
Black students make up a larger proportion of students at online colleges than they do at traditional colleges
This is also the case for Hispanic students and Asian students
Online students are more likely to be part-time or have a job than students who attend traditional colleges

Race	Online College %	Traditional Colleges %
White	39.6%	53.6%
Black	17.0%	12.0%
Hispanic	26.1%	18.2%
Asian	8.8%	6.8%
Pacific Islander	0.4%	0.2%
American Indian/Alaska Native	0.7%	0.6%
Two or more races	3.9%	4.0%
Nonresident	3.5%	4.6%

In 2012, over 25% of U.S. college and university students took at least one distance-learning course
By 2019, 36% were enrolled in online classes at college
Approximately 50% of these were completely online
By 2020, 75% of students were enrolled in at least one class online
In 2021, this came back down to 60% after Covid-19 restrictions loosened

In 2020, colleges with more than 90% of the student body enrolled in online classes awarded:
- 150,201 associate degrees
- 297,976 bachelor’s degrees
- 144,692 master’s degrees
- 14,380 doctorates
14.7% of all college enrollees are at primarily online schools
But in terms of degrees awarded, they make up:
- 14.8% of all associate degrees
- 14.6% of all bachelor’s degrees
- 17.2% of all master’s degrees

In the fall of 2020, over 14 million students took online classes due to Covid restrictions
That’s more than 75% of postsecondary students in the USA
This compares to 36% in the fall of 2019
In 2021, 60% of all degree-seekers in the U.S. took at least some online classes
This is significantly more than the 36% pre-pandemic, indicating that the pandemic has changed our habits and perceptions of online learning
In 2021, 30% of students studied exclusively online

11.2 million students in the USA take online classes
Of these, 8.5 million students are enrolled in online classes at public colleges and universities
A further 2.7 million students attended private schools remotely
15% of all US college students attend primarily online institutions
However, many more students undergoing online degrees also attend traditional colleges
There are 422 primarily online institutions in the USA
This is approximately 11% of all colleges and universities in the country