ANALYSIS—The number of students enrolled in degree programs at theological schools in the United States continues to grow. The 2025-26 annual data tables produced by the Association of Theological Schools (ATS) show a small uptick of about 1,400 in the overall student population — reported to be 70,179 across all masters and doctoral degree programs.
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary / Google Maps / Photo by CS3 Photography
For more than three decades, ATS has been releasing its annual data about what is happening in the world of graduate theological education.
According to Chris A. Meinzer, senior director and chief operating officer of ATS, 56% of ATS schools reported year-over-year growth, and the growth was broadly distributed.
“This is the second year in a row when more schools grew than declined,” he told MinistryWatch in response to our request about notable trends in the ATS data.
He also pointed out that the total number enrolled in ATS-accredited seminaries is over 81,000, the largest number since 2006. This includes a large increase in the number of non-degree seeking students — a number that has been steadily increasing over the last five years.
About 36% of those students are enrolled in a Master of Divinity program and 14% in Doctor of Ministry programs.
Every racial category of students has grown between 2023 and 2025 with the Hispanic population growing the most from 6,393 to 8,190, or about 28%, Meinzer said. The population of white students only grew 2% over the last two years, but that is still a contrast to its regular decline since its peak in 2005.
Seven of the 10 largest seminaries by student count are affiliated with Baptists. Liberty Theological Seminary is Baptist, but not affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). All six of the SBC-affiliated seminaries are in the top 10: Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Gateway Seminary, and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary.
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“The landscape is dominated by a handful of schools, and some of them are getting bigger year after year,” Ed Stetzer, dean of Biola’s Talbot School of Theology, pointed out in his analysis of the data. “It’s hard to overstate just how much seminary training is done by only 10 schools.”
He noted that larger seminaries seem to continue “thriving.” mid-sized schools seem to “struggle,” and smaller schools are carving out “niches.”
Additionally, the largest seminaries tend to be more theologically conservative, Stetzer said. Mainline Protestant seminaries, on the other hand, continue to experience lower enrollment, reflecting their denominational decline.
Liberty Theological Seminary is once-again the seminary with the highest enrollment at 6,344 students—but not all are full-time. The full-time equivalent (FTE) is 4,743.
Meinzer explained that full-time equivalent (FTE) indicates how much of a full-time load the enrolled students are taking. For example, if 100 students are taking 1,500 credits and a normal full-time load is 30 credits per year, then the 100 students would equal 50 FTE students (1,500 divided by 30). Another way of looking at this is that, on average, these students are taking a 50% load.
The table below shows that when it comes to FTE percentage, Duke is at the top with 99% of its students taking a full course load. Next is Liberty at 75%, followed by the Seventh-day Adventist Seminary of Andrews University and The Master’s Seminary at 65%.
Online student participation in seminary studies is growing. Meinzer said that online-only students grew from 43% to 48% between 2023 and 2025. “Protestant schools are more likely to use online education, and now 50% of those students are in the Online Only category,” Meinzer said.
Seminaries in the Southern United States, often referred to as the “Bible Belt” tend to be the largest. However, California has four of the 25 largest seminaries: Talbot, Gateway, Fuller, and Master’s.
Kairos is a growing seminary that has developed a different online and mentor-based model for its students. Its aim is to allow students to “build entirely customized educational journeys that are affordable, accessible, relevant, and faithful.”
One significant change from last year’s list is that Trinity Evangelical Divinity School was acquired by Trinity Western University in Langley, British Columbia, and moved its campus there.
While that long-standing evangelical school faced difficulty, Stetzer believes the future of theological education is trending toward theologically orthodox schools.
The data from ATS points to trends that are important and influential to all members of Christ’s church.
“The future of the church will be significantly influenced by the quality of its leaders. And these leaders will largely be shaped in, through, and by the theological institutions we are called to steward,” Stetzer wrote.
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