CHICAGO, Sept. 12 (Xinhua) -- The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign (UIUC) claimed a record freshman enrollment of 7,609 students for the fall semester 2018, topping the previous record of 7,593 in fall 2016.

The total number of undergraduate students enrolled at UIUC was now 33,673, higher than the previous record of 33,624 in 2017. In the meantime, total enrollment of 49,339 eclipsed last year's record of 47,826, or up 3.2 percent.

Increases in graduate-level enrollment played a major factor in UIUC's overall growth of more than 1,500 students.

The percentage of incoming freshmen who reported a status of first-generation college students continues to increase, from 21.6 percent in 2016 to 21.9 percent in 2017 and a record 22.1 percent this year.

A total of 5,847 freshmen are classified as in-state students, up from 2017's figure of 5,507. Freshmen from other U.S. states decreased from 890 to 837. International students decreased to 925 in the freshman class, down from 1,116 a year ago. Nevertheless, the number of countries represented increased from 31 to 36.

UIUC originally planned to enroll 7,500 freshmen this year." We were pleasantly surprised by our enrollment of Illinois residents," said Andy Borst, the admissions director.

UIUC is just few of the state school in U.S. state of Illinois that have reported an increase in enrollment this year.

University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) reported an enrollment of 31,683 students this fall, up 3.7 percent year on year. Eastern Illinois University showed an increase for the first time in a decade by bringing 500 additional students this year. Its total enrollment was 7,526, up 7.1 percent on year.

Enrollment data provided by 10 state universities in Illinois show broad declines in students enrollment, and the decline has barely slowed since last year, especially for regional schools. Southern Illinois University in Carbondale and Western Illinois University recorded the biggest drops.