After 19 months of remote instruction, UC Santa Barbara is reopening campus for in-person instruction for Fall Quarter 2021. In the 2020-21 school year, Santa Barbara County had the greatest share of students per county population at UCSB, and the share of in-state students has been generally decreasing for the last decade.
In-State Students
The majority of students come from California, making up over 90% of domestic students each year for the past two decades.
Of the 22,205 in-state students for the 2020-21 school year, the three counties with the highest number of students at UCSB are Los Angeles County with 5,670 students, Orange County with 2,065 students and Santa Clara County with 1,878 students.
However, Santa Barbara County had the greatest student-per-county population for the past two decades, with Ventura County coming in second. In the 2020-21 school year, these two counties were followed by the following Bay Area counties: Marin County, Santa Clara County, Contra Costa County and San Mateo County.
The California counties with the lowest number of students at UCSB are Alpine County and Sierra County, where no student from either county attended in the 2020-21 school year. However, the California counties with the lowest share of students per county population for counties having more than 30 students were Madera County, Shasta County and Humboldt County.
Out-Of-State Students
Outside of California, Washington State tied with New York as the most common state of origin for the 2021-22 school year. In the 2020-21 school year, these states were followed by Illinois, New Jersey and Texas.
New York has been the most common state of origin since the 2006-07 school year. South Dakota was the least state of origin with only one student in the 2020-21 school year. The only two states that didn’t have any students attend since the 2000-01 school year were North Dakota in 2015-16 and West Virginia in 2016-17 and 2017-18.
Between the 2000-01 and the 2021-22 school year, there are 2,195 more students from California, an increase of 11%, and 560 more out-of-state students, an increase of 31.8%. The share of in-state students at UCSB peaked during the 2009-10 school year at 92.6%, and sank to its lowest point during the 2020-21 school year at 90.5%.
International students
During the 2010-11 school year, 847 students came from countries outside of the U.S. In the years since, this number has been increasing each year except for the previous one. The number peaked at 4,142 students during the 2019-20 school year and 3,969 during the 2020-21 school year.
The number of countries international students are from is 131 in the past two decades, with 107 countries in the 2020-21 school year.
While the number of domestic students has only increased by 797 since the 2010-11 school year, from 23,358 to 24,525 students, the number of international students has increased by 3,296, going from 3.5% of the student body to 14.6%.
The number of Chinese students went from 198 students in 2010-11, making up 23% of international students, to 2,797 students in 2020-21, making up 70% of the international students. This large increase over the last decade has made China the most common country of origin for international students, with India in second place with 157 students and Taiwan following with 100 students.
A version of this article appeared on p. 3 of the Sept. 23, 2021 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
