Younger Students Drive Surge in Community College Degrees, New Report Finds

Of the 3.4 million graduates in 2024–2025, roughly 892,300 had previously earned a postsecondary credential.

Students take a selfie with the blooming corpse flower known as "Pangy" at the Talcott Greenhouse on the campus of Mount Holyoke College in South Hadley, Mass., on April 14, 2026. AP Photo/Leah Willingham

Community colleges are seeing a notable shift in who is earning degrees, with younger students increasingly choosing associate programs, according to a new report by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

Students aged 18 to 20 now make up the largest share of first-time associate degree earners, according to the report, published on April 16.

The findings suggest that recent high school graduates are viewing two-year degrees not as a fallback, but as an entry point into higher education.

The center found that for the first time, students aged 18 to 20 accounted for 32.6 percent of all first-time associate degree earners in the 2024–2025 academic year, surpassing those aged 21 to 24.

Over the past decade, the number of associate degree earners in this younger age group has climbed sharply, jumping by nearly 50 percent. This is a shift for community colleges, which have historically enrolled older students balancing work, family, and education.

At the same time, participation among even younger learners is growing. In 2024–2025, about 52,500 students younger than 18 earned undergraduate certificates or associate degrees, nearly four times the number a decade ago.

The report showed broad gains across undergraduate education. More than 3.4 million learners earned undergraduate credentials in 2024–2025, a 3.2 percent increase from the previous academic year.

Of those, about 2 million earned bachelor’s degrees, while 865,400 earned associate degrees. Another 579,400 students completed undergraduate certificates, marking a decade high for that credential type. The data reflect steady demand for postsecondary education, even as students explore more flexible, shorter-term pathways.

The increase in associate degree attainment aligns with recent enrollment trends.

In fall 2025, community college enrollment rose by 3 percent from the previous academic year, outpacing the 1.4 percent growth at public four-year institutions, according to a January Clearinghouse report.

This suggests that more students are not only enrolling in community colleges, but also completing their programs.

Pathways Through Higher Education

The report also highlights how students are stacking credentials over time. Of the 3.4 million graduates in 2024–2025, roughly 892,300 had previously earned a postsecondary credential.

The most common pathway remains students earning a bachelor’s degree after first completing an associate degree. About 419,800 students followed this route in 2024–2025. This represents a 1 percent increase from the previous year, the first notable growth in four years.

Still, the pace of growth is slower than in earlier periods, particularly between 2016–2017 and 2020–2021.

Meanwhile, students who previously earned certificates are increasingly continuing their education. The number of bachelor’s degree earners with a previous certificate rose by 20.2 percent, marking the ninth consecutive year of growth for that pathway.

“Among completers with a prior certificate as their highest award, there were more students earning each type of additional credential in 2024–25,” the report states.

Demographics and Fields

The report notes that bachelor’s degree attainment increased across all racial and ethnic groups, with growth ranging from 0.3 percent among international students to 5.8 percent among black students.

At the same time, differences remain in previous educational attainment. More than one-third of black, Hispanic, Native American, and Pacific Islander bachelor’s degree earners had previously earned another credential, compared with less than 30 percent of white, multiracial, and Asian students.

In terms of fields of study, computer science continues to expand rapidly. About 210,100 students earned undergraduate credentials in the field in 2024–2025, capping a decade of 85.5 percent growth.

All regions of the country also saw increases in the number of undergraduate credential earners, with the Northeast recording its first growth in eight years.