Is College Finally Getting More Affordable?
The cost of college continues to rise, but the rate of tuition hikes has slowed over the past decade. Relative to median household income, public college tuition has fallen since its peak during the 2014-15 school year.
College tuition is by no means cheap today, but families may be happy to see that tuition has declined as a percent of median household income from 15.9% in 2014-15 to 12.1% in 2024-25. Despite this recent improvement in affordability, college tuition remains more than 200% more expensive relative to median income in 1984-85, when public school tuition was 5.5% of median household income.
Source: Median U.S. household annual income data from U.S. Census Bureau, 2025; Annual public university tuition data from Education Data Initiative, 2025.
