Enrollment drop coming in '85

In 1975, according to census reports, there were 3,434,000 eight-year-olds and 4,243,000 18-year-olds This difference of nearly 1 million students is the basis for concern by colleges and universities about possible enrollment declines beginning even before 1985. The eight-year- olds of 1975 will be 18 (traditional age of college freshmen) in 1985.

Demographers are predicting, with the exception of Florida, that it is the states east of the Rocky Mountains which will sustain the greatest drops in numbers of high-school graduates.

States expected to have the fewest 18-year- olds are Kentucky, Mississippi, New York, North and South Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, and West Virginia.

Of course, these census figures do not include immigrants, refugees, and older students desiring to begin or continue college.