High school graduation on the rise in 2025

High school graduates to peak in 2025, with slightly deeper-than-expected declines ahead

The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education’s latest projections serve as a call for policymakers and colleges to boost attendance rates.

WICHE’s latest edition of “Knocking at the College Door” adds new detail, estimates and nuance to trends that the higher education sector has spent years bracing for. 

“While the news may not come as a surprise, the fact that the moment we have all been expecting is now upon us can be jarring,” the authors wrote. “And the trends that we expected have been compounded by an unexpected pandemic, changing the context in which we now exist.”

WICHE’s forecasts are drawn from birth data, enrollment figures for first through 12th grades and the numbers of high school graduates in each state. 

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