In 2000, the population of Rexburg was just over 17,000. In the past 20 years, that number has doubled, with a population of 40,000 in 2022.

The reason behind this is simple: On June 21, 2000, President Gordon B. Hinckley announced that Ricks College would become Brigham Young University-Idaho, transforming from a two-year junior college to a four-year institution.

According to Deseret News, BYUI had 8,628 students enrolled when President Hinckley made that announcement in 2000. During the Fall 2025 semester, there were 24,450 students on campus, according to BYUI Enrollment and Demographics.

Engineering technology professor Troy Spratling has been teaching at BYUI since 1999, a year before President Hinckley's announcement. He pointed out how much bigger BYUI is now than it used to be.

“Enrollment’s huge compared to what it was,” said Spratling. “The place really started growing.”

Rexburg is growing, but with growth comes growing pains.

Parking troubles

BYUI students acknowledged that there are positive and negative aspects to Rexburg’s rapid population growth. 

Senior and English education major Anja Cajigas mentioned problems such as heavy traffic and shortage of on-campus parking.

“Traffic has increased tenfold, maybe sevenfold, over the past year, which it was not always a problem,” Cajigas said.

Spratling pointed the intense traffic of 2nd East Street and saying that Rexburg needs a new north-south thoroughfare.

Many students notice the lack of parking at BYUI. Campus parking is limited and only available for students who buy permits.

Campus parking specialist Thayne Odell said that university parking isn’t always convenient, but they do their best to make it easy for everyone.

“We do the best we can with the resources we’ve been given stewardship over,” Odell said.

Odell said that campus parking limits the number of permits they sell and that students should remember that they don't have exclusive parking.

“We’re trying to accommodate as many people as we can, as many students, as many employees, as many guests, as many vendors,” Odell said. “Everybody that has reason to come to campus. We try to accommodate as many of them as we can and do so in a professional manner.”

Another student, Taia Jensen, said she would like to see more available parking but is aware of the limited space.

“Campus is only as big as it is, and it’s surrounded by stuff. Where are you going to put another parking lot?” Jensen said.

Odell pointed out that building a parking lot requires more work than laying down asphalt and painting lines.

“We can increase our parking, but in order to do that, we have to have approval from Salt Lake City, which they haven’t given us approval to build more,” Odell said. “People just gotta understand that during busy [traffic] times, they may have to park in sections that they don’t prefer.”

Too many people, not enough space

The student body at BYUI keeps getting bigger despite a campus that stays relatively the same.

BYUI student, Callan Oviatt, mentioned that an overabundance of students means it’s harder for people to find work.

“[There's] going to be a need for a lot more jobs,” Oviatt said. “I’ve talked to so many people and none of them can find a job here.”

Along with that, Cajigas said she would like to see more options for shopping in town, since there aren’t many stores and they’re always crowded.

“We have an Albertsons and we have a Walmart, but that’s not enough to really supply the demand,” Cajigas said. “It’s hard to get what you need and keep things stocked when you have so many people in such a small location.”

Although the City of Rexburg has confirmed plans for a new Winco Foods grocery store to be built in Rexburg, student population seems to be increasing at a faster rate than town infrastructure can keep up.

Cajigas also pointed out that the Hyrum Manwaring Student Center is always crowded. Junior and English education major Taylor Hope agreed.

“I think if there were more public spaces that had seating, then more people would congregate there,” Hope said. “A different hub would be awesome.”

Despite the challenges of a growing small town, Cajigas said that having more people at BYUI promotes diversity, which is ultimately a good thing.

“I would probably discourage becoming too homogeneous in culture, because it’s good to have different people at different walks of life,” Cajigas said.

The changing shape of Rexburg

It’s not just streets, parking lots or campus study spots that are crowded. In Fall 2025, BYUI faced a shortage of available women’s housing due to a high volume of students in town for fall semester as compared to the winter or spring semesters.

Taia Jensen said that she faced this problem last year.

“I tried to sign up for housing in April–May (2025), and I was put on waitlists everywhere,” Jensen said.

Even with changes that disqualify students over the age of 25 from living in approved housing and new complexes opening up (like Sundance Towncenter that opened this semester, finding available approved housing within their price range continues to be a challenge for many students.

Even the university itself is changing. BYUI is currently undergoing academic restructuring of their programs-- but this isn't the first time this has happened. Spratling said that the school did some restructuring during the change from Ricks College to BYU-Idaho.

“In the automotive program, we had to go through and get rid of a couple of classes that did not count towards graduation,” Spratling said. “I think some of those things were hard for some but, you know, we're a four-year school now, we've got to be a little more efficient than we were, and help people get to a career.

Spratling said he has seen a change in the last five or six years of the university being more focused on students finding careers post-graduation.

“We’re more focused on helping people get careers, not so much just come and get an education,” Spratling said. “Let’s get an education and make it count toward a career.”

Despite the apparent challenges, Rexburg's growth continues. As enrollment at BYUI grows, especially in the busy fall semester, the town continues to build new infrastructure and the university expands to allow more room.

Rapid growth always comes with some growing pains, but Rexburg seems to be working through them.