In a study by the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, research shows that public community college enrollment has plummeted due to the pandemic.

While first year enrollment for college has dropped by 16.1%, community college enrollment numbers have dropped by 22.7% and overall community college populations shrank by 9.4%. In 2019, colleges only saw a 0.4% decrease in enrollment.

From the Washington Examiner:

Doug Shapiro, executive director of the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center, told the Wall Street Journal that the economic effects of the pandemic have had a more profound impact on students who were planning to enroll in two-year community colleges and then decided they couldn’t because of finances.

“I fear that many of those students will never get back,” he said.

The data for fall 2020 was derived from some 9.2 million students from more than half of the schools that report data to the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.

See full report by National Student Clearinghouse Research Center.