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Trends by state

Trends by state

Puerto Rico

39 colleges on the site: 12 public, 26 private nonprofit, 1 for-profit. Their undergraduates fell 39% in total since fall 2014, to 86,333 today (30 of 39 Puerto Rico colleges in the panel).

Explore Puerto Rico's colleges

How Puerto Rico's colleges changed

The median Puerto Rico college, fall 2014 to fall 2024, against the national median (dashed) over the same .

Undergraduates

-35%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Applicants

-28%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Acceptance rate

−1.4 pts

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Average total cost

+1%

over 10 years, median college

  • This state
  • National median

Public and private

State stories are often public-system stories: a state's publics shrinking while its privates hold, or the reverse.

Public

11 colleges
Undergrads
-29%
Applicants
-17%
Acceptance rate
−9.1 pts
Average cost
0%

Private nonprofit

19 colleges
Undergrads
-47%
Applicants
-34%
Acceptance rate
+15.5 pts
Average cost
+1%

Where Puerto Rico's first-years come from

Top sending states

  1. Puerto Rico (in-state)99%
  2. FL0%
  3. NY0%
  4. TX0%
  5. CA0%
  6. NJ0%
  7. PA0%
  8. NV0%

Public:

0% → 0% (12 colleges)

Private nonprofit:

0% → 0% (26 colleges)

First-years crossing state lines, fall 2024

Inflow
158
Outflow
983
Net
-825

Puerto Rico's colleges enroll 0.2 first-years from other states for every Puerto Rico resident who starts college in another state, among four-year colleges on this site.

Colleges taking the most of the inflow

  1. Universidad del Sagrado Corazon46%
  2. University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez18%
  3. Universidad Adventista de las Antillas12%
  4. Inter American University of Puerto Rico-Aguadilla3%
  5. University of Puerto Rico-Humacao3%

One fall, over campus-based colleges only: not that fall, not for-profit, and not a campus that merged or split.

Biggest movers in Puerto Rico

The same as the national lists, restricted to Puerto Rico's colleges.

Applications surged

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: −41.7% (6 colleges ranked)

  1. 1University of Puerto Rico-Mayaguez+50.3%2,958 → 4,446
  2. 2Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico-Ponce+18.8%2,371 → 2,817

Sources:IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 2 and how it's ranked

Grew the most

, fall 2014 to fall 2024

Median college: −33.9% (25 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Atlantic University+1.8%1,425 → 1,451

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (distance education), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024About the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 1 and how it's ranked

Students pay much less

(in 2023–24 dollars), 2013–14 to 2023–24

Median college: +1.5% (4 colleges ranked)

  1. 1Universidad Adventista de las Antillas−13.9%$14,900 → $12,822
  2. 2Universidad del Sagrado Corazon−2.5%$20,071 → $19,571

Sources:IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2013–14 to 2023–24;College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2013 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)

Top 2 and how it's ranked

Public research universities

Puerto Rico's public R1 and R2 universities (Carnegie 2025), with their undergraduate change over the same window. No classification in the data means "flagship," so this is simply the state's public research universities.

How this was measured

  • Which colleges. Colleges with 300 or more undergraduates in both fall 2014 and fall 2024: 30 of 39 Puerto Rico colleges. It's a , so colleges entering or leaving the data don't look like change.
  • Average total cost is an academic-year figure, one year behind fall: 2013–14 to 2023–24, after inflation.
  • Out-of-state shares are collected in even-numbered falls only; odd years are gaps, not zeros.
  • Totals and medians both appear because they can diverge: a state's total can fall more (or less) than its median college when its biggest colleges move differently.
  • No policy attribution. This page shows what changed, not why; a state's mix of public, private, and for-profit colleges, and its system policies, aren't broken out as causes.
  • First-years crossing state lines is a single snapshot, fall 2024, over campus-based colleges only: colleges that fall, for-profit colleges, and campuses that merged or split are left out. It's the newest fall the site's per-college home-state tables cover, not this page's ten-year window.

Sources:College Scorecard (enrollment), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Admissions survey, Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;IPEDS Institutional Characteristics survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Student Financial Aid survey, 2014–15 to 2023–24;IPEDS Fall Enrollment survey (part C, residence of first-time students), Fall 2014 to Fall 2024;inflation: BLS CPI-U, school-year averagesAbout the data(built 2026-10-12; CPI retrieved 2026-10-12)