How many colleges are there, anyway? If you're talking about the US, no one really knows. There are a lot of reasons for this, some of which are definitional: Do you include cosmetology colleges? Welding schools? Schools of massage therapy? IPEDS includes many post-secondary options for students that don't offer an English or a history major. So it's complicated. You can go to IPEDS and make your selection using "All institutions" and you'll find the "answer" is 6,527, but that's not quite right: That's how many colleges are in IPEDS, and you only have to be in IPEDS if you accept Title IV funding. There are lots of schools in the US, like The Classical College of Baton Rouge, Louisiana; or John Witherspoon College of Rapid City, South Dakota; or Wyoming Catholic College of Lander, Wyoming, that don't take Title IV funding, and thus don't report to IPEDS. And to complicate matters, there are colleges that don't accept Titl