More than 13,000 students entered college this fall semester as first-year students at one of the three public universities in Iowa.
But how do the total enrollment numbers at these universities compare to one another? Did any school report an increase compared to fall 2024? Here’s what to know.
Which Iowa university had the biggest enrollment increase for fall 2025?
The University of Iowa experienced the largest percentage increase in enrollment, at 2.6%, adding 784 students to its ranks this year.
Iowa State University had 2.2% more students in the fall of 2025 than the previous year. The University of Northern Iowa experienced a 0.9% decrease in enrollment compared to the fall 2024 semester.
What is the University of Iowa’s enrollment?
The total fall enrollment at the University of Iowa for 2025 was 31,563 students, according to a news release from the university.
The school’s first-year class is the second-largest in its history, with 5,561 students. The freshman class represents 93 of Iowa’s 99 counties, 47 U.S. states and territories and 37 countries.
Undergraduates make up 23,407 of Iowa’s 2025 enrollment. Graduate students totaled 6,269, while the number of professional students remained unchanged at 1,877. Over half — 2,892 — of the incoming class are Iowa residents.
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2025 fall enrollment: 31,563
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2024 fall enrollment: 30,779
What is Iowa State University’s enrollment?
Iowa State’s total enrollment for the fall semester was 31,105. The school’s freshman class of 6,160 students is its largest since the fall of 2016. Nearly 21% of Iowa State’s first-year class were first-generation students.
Out of the 31,105, 26,346 are undergraduates, 4,116 are graduate students and 643 are professional veterinary medicine students. The 2025 student population came from all 99 Iowa counties, all 50 states and 110 countries, according to the school. More than 16,000 students are from Iowa.
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2025 fall enrollment: 31,105
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2024 fall enrollment: 30,432
What is the University of Northern Iowa’s enrollment?
The total fall enrolment at Iowa for 2025 was 9,204 students, a slight dip of 79 students compared to 2024. There are nearly 8,000 undergraduates and 1,404 graduate students.
Northern Iowa’s overall student population represents all 99 counties in Iowa, 42 U.S. states and 53 countries. More than 90% of the school’s freshman class are Iowa residents.
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2025 fall enrollment: 9,204
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2024 fall enrollment: 9,283
Cooper Worth is a service/trending reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at cworth@gannett.com or follow him on X @CooperAWorth.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: See 2025 Iowa, Iowa State and University of Northern Iowa enrollment
