Short answer
The US has 984 public community colleges, by our count of the NCES IPEDS directory for 2024-25: 757 public two-year colleges plus 227 public colleges that NCES classes as four-year because they award some bachelor's degrees, though mostly associate's degrees and certificates. Including private two-year colleges, NCES counted 1,268 two-year colleges in 2022-23. The 984 enrolled 9.4 million students during 2023-24, and California has the most (116).
- 984 public community colleges in 2024-25: 757 classed as two-year and 227 as four-year because they also award bachelor's degrees.
- IPEDS lists no public two-year colleges in Florida or Washington: all 28 and 34 of their colleges count as four-year.
- The 984 enrolled 9,389,295 students over 2023-24; the median college had 5,819, and only 28% of students attended full time.
- California (116), North Carolina and Texas (59 each) and Illinois (45) have the most.
- 575 of the 984 belong to a multi-campus system or district, which often buys for every college in it.
On this page
This guide is for companies that sell to community colleges: education technology, IT and cybersecurity, career and technical lab equipment, facilities and energy services, workforce training partners and student services software. It's also for anyone who needs the number or a list. It sets the federal counts side by side, breaks them down by state, size and system, shows how to download the list, and explains how community colleges buy. For four-year schools, see our list of universities.
How many community colleges there are in the US
| Count | Number | Year | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Public community colleges (public two-year, plus public four-year colleges that mainly award associate's degrees) | 984 | 2024-25 | Our count from the NCES IPEDS directory |
| Public two-year colleges only | 757 | 2024-25 | NCES IPEDS directory |
| Public institutions in the 2025 Carnegie associate categories | 917 | 2025 | Carnegie Classification, as published in IPEDS |
| Public two-year colleges only | 817 | 2022-23 | NCES Digest of Education Statistics, table 317.10 |
| All two-year colleges, public and private | 1,268 | 2022-23 | NCES Digest, table 317.10 |
| Tribal colleges | 35 | 2024-25 | NCES IPEDS directory |
All counts cover degree-granting institutions in the 50 states and DC that take part in federal student aid (Title IV). Our count uses the IPEDS 2024-25 directory, released September 2025.
IPEDS, the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System, is the federal census of colleges that every college receiving federal student aid must report to. It has no field called "community college", so every count is built from its sector and classification codes. Ours takes every public, degree-granting, two-year college (757) and adds the public colleges NCES classes as four-year whose awards are still mainly associate's degrees and certificates (227). The 2022-23 private two-year count is mostly career colleges: 373 for-profit and 78 nonprofit.
Why the counts differ
- Bachelor's degrees move a college to "four-year". Once a college awards any bachelor's degree, IPEDS files it as four-year. All 28 of Florida's public community and state colleges and all 34 of Washington's public community and technical colleges are classed that way, as are 27 of Ohio's 37 and 24 of Texas's 59. Counting only "public two-year" misses them.
- That's why the two-year count keeps falling. NCES counted 835 public two-year colleges in 2020-21 and 817 in 2022-23; the 2024-25 directory has 757. Over the same years more public colleges were reclassified as four-year.
- Institutions are not campuses. IPEDS counts each institution that reports separately. Indiana's Ivy Tech Community College reports as one institution with many campuses, while California reports each of its 116 colleges.
- Private and tribal colleges. Some counts add the private two-year colleges or count tribal colleges separately. 27 of the 35 tribal colleges are already in our 984; the rest are private or mainly award bachelor's degrees.
Community colleges by state
| State | Public community colleges | Classed two-year | Classed four-year | Students, 2023-24 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| California | 116 | 95 | 21 | 2,129,155 |
| North Carolina | 59 | 58 | 1 | 321,454 |
| Texas | 59 | 35 | 24 | 1,037,053 |
| Illinois | 45 | 45 | 0 | 435,426 |
| New York | 39 | 36 | 3 | 340,773 |
| Ohio | 37 | 10 | 27 | 273,728 |
| Washington | 34 | 0 | 34 | 226,843 |
| Michigan | 31 | 25 | 6 | 232,954 |
| Georgia | 29 | 23 | 6 | 197,799 |
| Florida | 28 | 0 | 28 | 561,444 |
| Minnesota | 28 | 27 | 1 | 147,109 |
| Kansas | 26 | 25 | 1 | 109,673 |
Students are the 12-month unduplicated headcount for July 2023 to June 2024 from IPEDS, provisional release.
California's own count agrees: its Chancellor's Office reports 116 colleges in 73 districts, with 2.2 million students, the largest higher education system in the country.
Community colleges by size
| Students enrolled during 2023-24 | Colleges | Students |
|---|---|---|
| Under 1,000 | 50 | 27,678 |
| 1,000 to 4,999 | 389 | 1,118,127 |
| 5,000 to 9,999 | 248 | 1,796,853 |
| 10,000 to 19,999 | 188 | 2,672,178 |
| 20,000 or more | 109 | 3,774,459 |
| Total | 984 | 9,389,295 |
The median college enrolled 5,819 students over the year. Most students study part time: only 2,594,288 (28%) were full time. The largest institutions by headcount were Ivy Tech Community College in Indiana (178,903), Lone Star College in Texas (107,793), Dallas College (104,064), Miami Dade College (84,258) and Northern Virginia Community College (73,320). By location, 321 colleges are in cities, 194 in suburbs, 243 in towns and 226 in rural areas.
Systems and districts
575 of the 984 colleges report that they belong to a multi-campus system or district. The largest groups in IPEDS are the North Carolina Community College System (55 colleges), Washington's State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (33), the State University of New York (32), Minnesota State (26), the Alabama and Virginia community college systems (23 each) and the Technical College System of Georgia (22). In a system state, some contracts are negotiated once for every college; elsewhere each college or district buys for itself.
How to download a list of community colleges
- Download the IPEDS directory file. The institutional characteristics file (HD2024) is a free CSV with every college's name, address, county, phone, website, chief administrator's name and title, sector, level, Carnegie classification, system, locale, coordinates, EIN and federal UEI.
- Filter it. Keep degree-granting sector 4 rows (public two-year) and sector 1 rows (public four-year) whose institutional category is "not primarily baccalaureate or above". Then keep only active Title IV institutions in the 50 states and DC. That reproduces the 984.
- Add enrollment. Join the 12-month enrollment file (EFFY2024) on the UNITID to size each college.
- Search by hand. NCES College Navigator finds colleges by state, type and program if you need only a few.
- Check the state system. State system offices publish current college lists and leadership, and some run shared purchasing contracts.
How community colleges buy
- A board approves, the college buys. A local board of trustees (elected in many states) or a state board approves budgets and large contracts. The president leads; the vice president for business or administrative services runs finance and purchasing.
- Formal bids above thresholds. Purchases above state thresholds go to a bid or request for proposals, and many colleges buy through cooperative contracts another public agency has already competed.
- Program money drives equipment. Career and technical programs often buy labs and equipment with grants. The federal Perkins V Act provides nearly $1.4 billion a year for career and technical education in schools and colleges.
As general guidance, these are the usual owners by what you sell:
| What you sell | Who usually decides |
|---|---|
| Software, IT and cybersecurity | The CIO or vice president of IT, with purchasing |
| Lab equipment for nursing, welding, automotive or other programs | The program dean or division chair, often grant-funded |
| Facilities, energy and construction | The vice president of administrative services or facilities director |
| Workforce and employer training | The dean of workforce development or continuing education |
| Advising, enrollment and student services tools | The vice president of student services or enrollment management |
Worked example: nursing simulation labs in Illinois
Illustrative example. The company and its rates are invented; the counts come from IPEDS for 2024-25 and 2023-24.
The seller: Prairie SimLab (prairie-simlab.example) installs and maintains nursing simulation labs. The territory: Illinois, with 45 public community colleges, all classed two-year, which enrolled 435,426 students during 2023-24.
- Size the market. 16 Illinois colleges enrolled 10,000 or more students, 14 enrolled 5,000 to 9,999 and 15 fewer than 5,000. The larger colleges usually run several nursing cohorts a year.
- Check which run nursing. Use College Navigator's program search to keep colleges that award a registered nursing associate's degree.
- Find the buyer. Write to the dean of health sciences or nursing, who owns the lab, and copy purchasing once a quote is requested.
- Do the arithmetic. If an illustrative 30 colleges run nursing programs and one in six refreshes a simulation lab each year, that's 5 projects a year. Winning two at an illustrative $180,000 each gives $360,000 a year.
Finding each college's nursing dean and what's changed (a new program, a grant, a building project) is the slow part; Bebop finds the contacts and researches each college in the list.
Next step: profile each target college with the account research template before you write.
Sources
- IPEDS institutional characteristics directory file, 2024-25 (HD2024) and data dictionary, National Center for Education Statistics, September 2025
- IPEDS 12-month unduplicated headcount, 2023-24 (EFFY2024), provisional release, National Center for Education Statistics, September 2025
- Digest of Education Statistics, table 317.10: degree-granting institutions by control and level, National Center for Education Statistics, accessed 30 October 2026
- Use the IPEDS data, National Center for Education Statistics, accessed 30 October 2026
- College Navigator, National Center for Education Statistics, accessed 30 October 2026
- Key facts, California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, accessed 30 October 2026
- Perkins V, Perkins Collaborative Resource Network, US Department of Education, accessed 30 October 2026
Written by the Bebop team at Blackpearl Group. Published .
Questions people ask
How many community colleges are in the US?
984 public community colleges in 2024-25, by our count of the NCES IPEDS directory: 757 public two-year colleges and 227 public colleges that NCES classes as four-year because they award some bachelor's degrees but mainly award associate's degrees. NCES counted 1,268 two-year colleges of all kinds in 2022-23, including 451 private ones. The 2025 Carnegie Classification puts 917 public institutions in its associate categories.
How many community colleges are in California?
116, in 73 community college districts, according to the California Community Colleges Chancellor's Office, which reports 2.2 million students and calls it the largest higher education system in the country. IPEDS lists the same 116 colleges, 95 classed as two-year and 21 as four-year because they offer a bachelor's degree. They enrolled 2,129,155 students during 2023-24.
Which state has the most community colleges?
California, with 116 public community colleges in the 2024-25 IPEDS directory. North Carolina and Texas have 59 each, followed by Illinois (45), New York (39), Ohio (37) and Washington (34). Counts that use only the public two-year sector miss many colleges: IPEDS classes all of Florida's and Washington's community colleges as four-year because they award bachelor's degrees.
How many students attend community college?
The 984 public community colleges enrolled 9,389,295 students over July 2023 to June 2024, according to IPEDS 12-month enrollment data (provisional). Only 2,594,288 of them, 28%, studied full time. The median college enrolled 5,819 students, and 109 colleges enrolled 20,000 or more. Enrollment on any one day is lower, since many students take a single term or course.
Do community colleges offer bachelor's degrees?
Many now do. IPEDS classes 227 public colleges as four-year institutions even though most of their awards are associate's degrees and certificates, because they offer at least one bachelor's degree. They include every public college in Florida and Washington, 27 in Ohio, 24 in Texas and 21 in California. Their bachelor's programs are usually applied degrees in fields such as nursing and technology.
Where can I download a list of community colleges?
From NCES's IPEDS data files. The 2024-25 institutional characteristics file (HD2024) is a free CSV listing every college with its address, phone, website, chief administrator, sector, Carnegie classification and system. Keep public two-year colleges plus public four-year colleges that mainly award associate's degrees. Join the 12-month enrollment file to add student numbers, or use College Navigator to search by hand.