Adult Learners Infographic

Lonzha Dowthard & Natalya J. Jarvis

Department of Education, Northern Illinois University

HESA 503: U.S. College Students

Kelly Wesener Michael, Ed.D

September 29, 2021

 All about
Adult Learners
By: Natalya J. Jarvis & Lonzha Dowthard
The term "adult learners" encompasses a
range of students usually defined as students
over 25 and/or students with children

1 in 3 Students are
Adult Learners
With more than 6 million in
the United States, adult
learners are as common as
one in three students.
Most Adult Learners
are parents
83%
Nearly 5 million students in
America are parents,
representing approximately 23%
of the total student population.

51% 62% 52%

The majority of Most student More than half of

student parents are parents are single student parents
People of Color mothers never finish their
degree
Common Challenges
Adult Learners face different challenges than their
"traditional" counterparts including:
Greater strain on time availability
Childcare costs causing financial strain
Work and School balance issues
Lack of institutional support
Class modality and accessibility issues

First Generation 1st

54% of first generation
students are adult learners (24
and older).

Returning to School
On average, it takes adult learners 8
years to resume schooling and they
tend to have a higher completion
rate when they start at a 2-year
instituion .
 Degree vs. Certificate
60
57% think that getting
bachelor's degree is a good 40
investment and can get
them where they want to be.
20
47% think that getting a
certificate is a good 0
investment and can get Bachelor's Certificate
them where they want to be

Online Learning
Nearly all Adult Learners that enroll in online
programs complete them. Online adult
graduates make up 11% of the adult
graduating population .

Full-time Adult Learners

54% 34%

Younger Adult Older Adult

Learners (ages 25-29) Learners (ages 40+)
are more likely to are less likely to
attempt to go to attempt to go to
school full-time school full-time.

References