Report: Lower College Enrollment Could Lead to a $2T Loss of Lifetime Earnings

Posted October 30, 2023

A report from My eLearning World shows college enrolment for students has been declining for a decade now and could lead to a large economic impact.

In 2013, there were 16,279,138 undergraduate students enrolled at American universities. Today, only 14,187,588 enrolled undergrad students across American universities, a 12.8 percent or 2.1 million (2,091,550) drop, according to the report.

The 2.1 million loss of students could potentially result in over $2 trillion in lost income collectively.

Data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that 63 percent whole enrolled earn at least a bachelor’s degree. My eLearning World broke down the estimated percentage of students who would’ve earned a college degree based on the 2.1 million lost students since 2013.

• 812,699 would have gotten just a bachelor’s
• 366,898 would have gotten a master’s
• 78,903 would have gotten a doctoral degree
• 59,177 would have gotten a professional degree
• 773,874 “lost students” would have failed to graduate, but would have completed some college

Now, based on the average earnings of Americans based on their level of education, My eLearning World calculated the total potential dip in future earnings for these “lost students” since 2013.

• Those who would have earned a bachelor’s degree only: $975.2B
• Those who would have earned a master’s: $587B
• Those who would have earned a doctoral degree: $189.3B
• Those who would have earned a professional degree: $183.4B
• Those who would have done “some college”: $232.1B

A drop in enrollment can also result eventually in skill gaps, making the hunt for qualified workers harder for businesses, according to the report.

View the full My eLearning World report, here.