Nearly 18 years later, experts say the country, particularly the Northeast and Midwest, is headed toward a demographic cliff: a projected decrease in the population of young adults that will start in 2025.
This means those falling birth rates will soon catch up with colleges — and the enrollment declines that many schools have been facing could get worse.
There’s even a phrase for this in the higher education realm: the enrollment cliff.
Colleges brace for ‘enrollment cliff’ tied to the Great Recession of 2008 | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Many surveys are finding that Gen Z is growing skeptical of the high costs and value of a college degree, and that there is now an increasing interest in skill trades – trades that might be immune to disruption by AI replacing white collar workers.
