There’s a colloquial belief that horticulture-based enrollment in associates, bachelors, master’s, and doctoral degrees across the United States is waning. However, based on data compiled by the Food and Agricultural Education Information System (FAEIS), enrollment in horticultural bachelor majors went from the lowest enrollment in twenty years in 2018 to reach the highest point in last ten years in 2021 (3786 students). Bachelor’s degree enrollment in the West has steadily increased over the last ten years, while remaining level in the South. Enrollment in the Midwest has been generally declining for the last 20 years, while enrollment in the Northeast has been declining since 2015. However, both of the latter regions showed an increase in 2021. The West has the highest proportion of students enrolled in horticulture as a percentage (0.15%) of the total number of public high school graduates. Enrollment in horticultural master’s programs reached a peak in 2018 and has been variable since. Doctoral horticultural enrollment peaked in 2018 and 2019, declining in 2020 and 2021. Associates degree enrollment remained generally level from 2002 to 2019; however, it declined to a ten-year low point in 2020 and recovered by about 1/3 in 2021 to 432 students. Horticulture associates degree students have been predominantly male for the last ten years. However, when turfgrass enrollment is excluded, horticulture disciplines were 42% female and 58% male in 2021. At the beginning of the reporting period, in 2002, horticultural science bachelor programs were predominantly male (62%); by 2021 female enrollment increased to 48%. Over the last twenty years, the gender ratio in horticultural master’s degrees has remained quite consistent with the percent of female students ranging from 44 to 50% and of male students generally a little higher at 46% to 54%. In 2002 about a third of the doctoral graduate students were female, with the percentage increasing over time such that it reached close to parity by 2021 with 52% male and 47% female. Enrollment across all the fields and degrees, except for doctoral, is predominantly White, non-Hispanic. The percentage of bachelor Hispanic students has increased over time, representing the largest ethnic group after White, non-Hispanic. Asian student numbers also increased but not to the same level as Hispanic students. The percentage of non-US citizens in doctoral degrees has been quite high for many years across all the plant-related areas and was often the largest category. Implications are discussed.
