Enrollment Trends

This page includes enrollment trends up to nine years to provide a long-range perspective on enrollment over time. Enrollment trends are disaggregated by course characteristics (e.g., modality, CTE), as well as student characteristics (e.g., ethnicity, age, gender, etc.). Scroll down or click the link for each topic to view relevant data. Some tables are large and require the user to scroll to the right to see the full results. The data source is De Anza's Office of Institutional Research and Planning unless otherwise indicated. 

De Anza College Enrollment Trends

Over the past nine years, course enrollment decreased by 20% overall. Online course enrollment grew to 22% of total enrollment prior to spring 2020. The majority of enrollments are distributed across fall, winter and spring terms. The college enrolls 82% of students who identify as non-white, with 51% identifying as Asian, largely comprised of students identifying as Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipinx, and Asian Other. Another 24% identify as Latinx, 18% as white, and 4% as African American/Black. Nearly 50% of students are between 20-24 years old. There is an almost event split between students who identify as female and male. 2% of all students identify as LGBTQ+. Students predominantly reside in San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara. 

Headcount, enrollment and FTES has been on a steady decline over the past nine years, with an uptick in 2020-21.

CTE course enrollment has decreased over the past nine years as overall college enrollment has decreased but saw a jump in 2020-21. CTE enrollment consistently comprised close to a quarter of total enrollment over the time period.  

Face-to-face enrollment as a percentage of total enrollment has been decreasing while online and hybrid enrollment was increasing over the past five years. The increase in online and hybrid enrollment accelerated when instruction shifted to fully online in spring 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

As a percent of total enrollment, fall enrollment comprises around 32% of total annual enrollment, winter at 30%, spring at 28% and summer at around 11%, suggesting that enrollment in the three primary terms is proportionally similar. These proportions have remained rather stable as enrollment has decreased, suggesting the loss in enrollment is spread across all terms, not concentrated in one term. Note that the last column displays the percent change for enrollment and the average for the percent of each group.  

Over the last nine years, the proportion of each ethnic group has remained rather stable as enrollment decreased overall, suggesting that one racial/ethnic group was not under enrolling. Asian students consistently comprise 44% of total enrollment followed by Latinx at 24%, white at 18%, Filipinx at 7%, African American/Black at 4% and Pacific Islander at 1%. There has been an increase in students choosing not to declare their ethnicity which is currently at 4% of total enrollment, and was most pronounced in 2020-21 which saw a corresponding decrease in Asian students. Note that the last column displays the percent change for enrollment and the average for the percent of each group.  

Note: Racial/ethnic groups were ordered by assigning students with two or more ethnicities selected with the following ranks: Laotian, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Native American, Pacific Islander, Filipinx, African American/Black, Korean, Asian Indian, Japanese, Chinese, Asian Other, Latinx, White, Decline to State. For example, if a student selected Pacific Islander and Laotian, they were included in the Laotian group. Only Asian subgroups are displayed above. 

When disaggregating the Asian population into subgroups including Laotian, Cambodian, Vietnamese, Korean, Asian Indian, Japanese, Chinese, and Asian Other, 2019-20 students who identify as Chinese comprise the largest group within the Asian population followed by Vietnamese, Asian Other then Filipinx and Asian Indian. The numbers corresponding with ethnic groups indicate the order in which they were ranked when assigning students with two or more ethnicities selected. For example, if a student selected Pacific Islander and Laotian, they were included in the Laotian group.   

As a percent of total enrollment, students age 20-24 comprise around half of total enrollment followed by 19 or less at around 25% and 25-39 at 20%. Students age 40 and over compromise around 6% of total enrollment. These rates have remained rather stable over the past nine years. Note that the last column displays the percent change for enrollment and the average for the percent of each group. 

The average age of students is 25 years old. Student groups who tend to be older than the average student are African American/Black at 26, Native American at 27 and white at 28. Asian and Latinx students are younger than the average student at 23. 

Source: CCC Data Warehouse Report Server & DAIRP

Enrollment of students who identify as LGBTQ+ has reamined rather stable at 1% over the past five years with an increase to 2% in 2020-21.  

Female and male students are rather closely split over the past nine years with females averaging 48% of total enrollment and male students averaging 51% and holding proportionately stable. With the spike in enrollment in 2020-21, female students out enrolled their male counterparts, 50% to 49% for the first time in nine years. The college began collecting non-binary in fall 2018. Note that the last column displays the percent change for enrollment and the average for the percent of each group.  

Similar distributions of male and female students by ethnicity exist with a slightly higher rate of male than female students enrolled. The only exception is Latinx where there are more female (53%) than male (47%) students. 

Enrollment for the five populations served within student services has decreased over the past 9 years with the greatest percent decline for CalWorks, Foster Youth and DSPS. 

Students with only a high school/equivalent education are the highest group of students enrolled averaging 81% of the total population, followed by bachelor’s or higher and all other (8% each). Three percent of students already have an associate degree as their highest level of education. Students with a bachelor's or higher and with all other education levels decreased the greatest over the past 9 years with a 24% decrease followed by students with a high school diploma with a 19% decrease and students with an associate's degree with a 16% decrease.

When exploring highest educational attainment by ethnicity (not displayed) Asian and white students have the highest rate of bachelor’s or higher (11% and 12%, respectively). While students with the highest rate of high school only include Latinx and Filipinx (90% each), Pacific Islander (88%) and African American/Black students (87%).

The majority of our students reside in San Jose which has remained rather stable at 50% with a drop in fall 2020 to 47% while all other cities (outside of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties) has remained at 10% but increased in fall 2020 to 13%. Sunnyvale, Cupertino and Santa Clara are the next largest areas of residency, and combined comprise around 20% of all enrollment. 

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