Of the 7,448 first-year students enrolled in North Dakota colleges and universities in fall 2004, 56 percent were North Dakota residents. This means that 44 percent of first-year college students in North Dakota (3,252 students) came from other states. That gave North Dakota the sixth largest proportion of out-of-state, first-year students among all states.

""Our sustained ability to draw out-of-state students to our campuses demonstrates the perceived educational value of our university system,"" says Richard Rathge, director of the State Data Center at North Dakota State University. ""Moreover, we greatly benefit from the pool of out-of-state students we attract because more than one in four (27 percent) remain in North Dakota after they graduate from college.""

This month's ""Economic Brief,"" a monthly publication from the State Data Center, focuses on the residence and migration of first-year college students (high school graduates enrolled in college within one year of high school graduation) provided by the National Center for Education Statistics.

The number of high school graduates in North Dakota has declined during the past few decades, from 10,850 in 1970 to 7,740 in 2006. In addition, since 1998, a larger proportion of North Dakota graduates who attend college within one year of graduation are leaving the state for college. In fall 1998, 16 percent of North Dakota first-year students left the state to attend college. By 2004, this proportion grew to 26 percent.

Of the 5,661 North Dakota resident first-year students in fall 2004, 74 percent (4,196 students) were enrolled in North Dakota colleges or universities. This was slightly below the national average of 81 percent of first-year students attending college in their home state. Thus, 26 percent of North Dakota first-year students (1,465 students) left the state to attend college in 2004. When taking into account the 3,252 students entering North Dakota to attend college, the result is a net in-migration of 1,787 first-year students.

This net in-migration indicates that North Dakota brought in 32 percent more first-year students to its colleges and universities than it could have generated by using North Dakota resident first-year students alone, a level only five other states in the nation exceeded in 2004.

NDSU Agriculture Communication