The rapid evolution of community colleges can make it challenging to track them in national statistics because they do not fit neatly into a single category. To identify community colleges in the National Center for Education Statistics’ Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS), we consider an institution of a higher education to be a community college if it is publicly controlled, and either awards only associate‘s degrees and certificates or awards associate degrees, certificates, and bachelor’s degrees, but less than 50 percent of the credentials it awarded in the prior school year were bachelor’s degrees. We also consider Tribal colleges and universities chartered by Tribal governments to be community colleges if they meet either of these latter criteria.
Institutions
- During the 2020-21 school year, there were 1,022 community colleges, representing about 28.1 percent of the institutions of higher education that participated in one or more federal student aid programs authorized by the Higher Education Act of 1965 in that year.
Enrollment
- During the 2020-21 school year, 8,871,746 students attended community colleges, representing about 43.7 percent of undergraduate students enrolled in the United States that year. Most of those students (72.2 percent) were enrolled part-time.
Credentials
- During the 2020-21 school year, community colleges awarded 859,826 associate degrees, 619,708 certificates, and 30,067 bachelor’s degrees.
- The majority of associate and bachelor’s degrees awarded by community colleges were in the following fields, in this order:
- Liberal Arts and Sciences, General Studies and Humanities;
- Health Professions and Related Programs;
- Business, Management, Marketing, and Related Support Services;
- Multi/Interdisciplinary Studies; and
- Computer and Information Sciences and Support Services.
Finances
- During the 2021-2022 school year, the average in-district tuition and required fees for a full-time community college student were, respectively, $3,307 and $671. About 32 percent of community college students received Pell Grants and 13 percent received federal student loans.