People who don’t follow higher education are often stunned when they discover that four of the ten largest universities in the United States are found in Florida: #2 University of Central Florida (60,048 students), #7 Florida International University (50,396), #8 University of Florida (49,913), and #10 University of South Florida (47,646).

Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale (29,000) is the state’s largest private university, larger than the University of Miami (15,657).

But the greatest change in the last ten years is that half of Florida’s community colleges have added bachelors and advanced degrees. Miami-Dade College now has 135,148 students, residing in just one Florida county. Florida State College at Jacksonville has 84,486 students; Valencia College in Orlando (62,524); and Broward College in Fort Lauderdale (60,462).

Even Florida educators can’t keep tract of the increase in Private Non-Profit Colleges (46 in 2012) and For-Profit Colleges (18 in number). You might even call Florida the Education state if you put the title on sheer numbers.