univstats

Retention Rate

What is the Average Retention Rate?

The retention rate is the percentage of first-time students who attend and continue their study in next year at colleges. The low retention rate means that more students transfer out to or stop/pause the program at a school. In general, high ranked colleges or special purpose colleges' retention rate is higher than others.
The average retention rate of U.S. colleges is 72.02% for full-time students and 55.16% for part-time students. 1,631,067 out of 2,131,724 full-time first-year students continued their study in next year at U.S. colleges. In public colleges, the retention rate is 68% and private schools' rate is 75% By school levels, the retention rate at four-years colleges is 74% and community colleges' rate is 66%.
The next schools are the top 5 U.S. colleges that have the highest retention rate. West Los Angeles College has the highest retention rate of 100% among U.S. colleges. University of Chicago and Massachusetts Institute of Technology also have higher rate of 99% and 99% respectively. For the ranking, we exclude community colleges and four-colleges with less than 1,000 first-time students.
The following table summarizes the average retention rate in United States by school type and level.
The Average Retention Rate
TotalPublicPrivate (not-for-profit)Private (for-profit)
Total72.13%67.71%74.62%74.41%
4 Years Colleges73.52%72.57%74.78%67.81%
Community Colleges65.56%62.18%72.49%70.26%
Trade Schools76.88%76.27%74.67%77.07%
The following table summarizes the retention rate and number of students by attending status for U.S. collegesNumbers in parentheses in each column indicate the number of students in the corresponding category.
Retention Rate by Attending Status at U.S. colleges
Retention RateFirst-time StudentsEnrolled in Next Year
Full-time72.02%2,131,7241,631,067
Part-time55.16%369,029169,327

Colleges By State

The following table summarizes the Colleges by state and school type. You can sort the table by a column by touching/clicking the column name.
2024 Colleges by State
StateTotalPublicPrivate
Alabama67.29%66.24%74.69%
Alaska66.13%71.50%56.67%
Arizona71.91%66.73%67.60%
Arkansas67.03%63.21%63.64%
California76.01%72.54%78.41%
Colorado72.84%69.16%78.67%
Connecticut75.67%82.64%78.50%
Delaware76.09%88.67%66.67%
District of Columbia74.88%54.00%78.00%
Florida71.43%69.36%67.69%
Georgia63.38%61.82%68.24%
Hawaii65.12%66.20%62.50%
Idaho75.11%64.71%74.80%
Illinois72.45%66.40%73.61%
Indiana71.52%65.69%72.14%
Iowa73.73%65.89%72.63%
Kansas66.65%64.24%64.24%
Kentucky69.53%67.29%68.79%
Louisiana68.76%62.68%72.00%
Maine70.59%64.21%79.09%
Maryland70.82%67.36%79.18%
Massachusetts77.48%68.88%82.81%
Michigan74.13%69.26%77.06%
Minnesota68.34%63.73%76.00%
Mississippi68.75%65.22%77.38%
Missouri74.41%72.73%72.46%
Montana66.88%63.76%70.33%
Nebraska72.51%66.60%70.57%
Nevada77.42%68.25%-
New Hampshire70.00%63.25%77.44%
New Jersey75.09%70.11%77.07%
New Mexico62.97%58.11%78.50%
New York75.58%69.37%80.42%
North Carolina67.17%65.89%67.59%
North Dakota69.85%62.82%75.00%
Ohio69.66%67.52%74.19%
Oklahoma66.34%62.56%67.21%
Oregon72.46%61.20%80.27%
Pennsylvania75.15%72.01%78.38%
Rhode Island78.37%72.00%79.90%
South Carolina69.59%61.69%68.04%
South Dakota75.19%77.50%72.60%
Tennessee72.70%68.78%74.61%
Texas70.01%64.09%66.39%
Utah80.40%74.00%66.80%
Vermont79.75%70.33%80.43%
Virginia68.53%69.33%72.57%
Washington74.78%69.00%77.95%
West Virginia73.49%72.95%76.00%
Wisconsin75.51%70.86%74.08%
Wyoming66.71%64.00%-
Federated States of Micronesia50.00%50.00%-
Guam88.00%76.00%100.00%
Northern Marianas81.00%81.00%-
Palau61.00%61.00%-
Puerto Rico72.73%73.39%73.03%
Virgin Islands66.00%66.00%-