The Demographic Decline and Colleges’ Financial Futures

For years, demographers have warned that higher education faced a projected decline later this decade in the number of Americans projected to graduate from high school, shrinking student cohorts in ways that could threaten colleges’ financial viability. The pandemic and the ensuing recession have resulted in roughly a million fewer students enrolling in college in 2021 than in 2019, raising concerns about college access and equity and straining institutional budgets.