As Indiana University's enrollment increases, Monroe County's presence on campus shrinks

For yet another consecutive year, Indiana University's enrollment on the Bloomington campus has reached new heights while its share of hometown students reached new depths.

This year, IU Bloomington touts an incoming class of 9,736 beginner, degree-seeking students — a nearly 3% increase over the previous record-breaking fall 2021 class. But despite having a leading Big Ten university right in their backyard, Monroe County students are fewer and farther between on IU's flagship campus.

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IU's annual enrollment survey reveals the proportion of students from Monroe County enrolling at IU Bloomington has been in steady decline for the past 10 years. In 2012, Monroe County students made up 18% of the total student population on campus. That share is now down to 12% this semester, putting Monroe behind two other counties for the largest share of in-state students.

What's going on?

Stagnant population growth undermines Monroe County's IU campus presence

From at least 2012 to 2021, Monroe County sent the most students to IU Bloomington. That changed last year when the top spot was snatched by Hamilton County. Monroe's decline has continued into this year, with the county now in third place, right behind Marion.

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The drop leaves a lot to the imagination. Are Monroe County high school students even still going to college?

Yes, actually. The Indiana Commission for Higher Education reports 62% of Monroe County students from the graduating class of 2020 enrolled in college. Despite this being a 6% decline from 2019, Monroe County fares better than most of Indiana, remaining well above the statewide average of 53%.

Could it somehow be due the COVID-19 pandemic?

No. During the pandemic years, the average decline remained the same as it was before, with around 100 students dropping off. The data, stretching out across 10 years, point to a gradual, eroding slope of Monroe County's student presence on campus.

So what's going on? The reason is simple: population shifts.

On average, Monroe County's population increased by 1.3% from 2010 to 2020. By comparison, Hamilton and Marion counties increased by 27% and 8%, respectively. The two counties also have a much larger population than Monroe's 139,718, with Marion's population recorded as 977,203 and Hamilton's being 347,467.

Michael Hicks, a professor of economics and director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University, noted these population differences were bound to manifest in this way.

“With Hamilton County, very few counties in Indiana are growing that fast," Hicks said.

While Hamilton's population growth spiked from 2010 to 2020, recent census data isn't where you should be looking. Instead, rewind one more decade. Between the turn of the new millennia and 2010, the county's population fully doubled, and nearly half of those households reported having children. For comparison, from 2000 to 2010, Monroe County's population grew by 14.4%.

"From 2000 to 2010, Hamilton County was the one of the top 15 fastest growing counties in the country, and that growth was most likely composed of families with kids," Hicks said.

Those children are now old enough to begin going to college, so Hamilton has more college-age young adults than Monroe County.

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While Marion County didn't experience the same population explosion, it's also much bigger than Monroe. Marion, which includes Indianapolis, has also been growing at a healthy, steady rate. Meanwhile, Monroe County has had minor growth, with its own main city, Bloomington, down 1,200 residents since 2010, according to the 2020 Census.

With Marion and Hamilton counties having more people just graduating high school, IU is a natural landing place.

“IU’s a global university, so any 18-year-old who's thinking about going to college and is seriously thinking about going to college somewhere (that's not) nearby them, IU’s gotta be on that list,” Hicks said.

It's not a bad sign, just a result of population trends.

"It's not bad for IU. It's not bad for Monroe County,” Hicks added.

Monroe County students still make up 12% of the university's total headcount in Bloomington.

Reach Rachel Smith at rksmith@heraldt.com.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: IU Bloomington's hometown student population makes up less of total