The Distance Education State Almanac 2017 reveals very different patterns of distance enrollments among the 50 states. This publication, which includes information for all 50 states, and the accompanying 50 individual state reports, provide the first-ever detailed examination of the state-level differences in distance education. This report uses data collected under the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Educational Statistics (NCES) Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS) Fall Enrollment survey. The sample for this analysis is comprised of all active, degree-granting institutions of higher education in the United States that are open to the public. The focus of this report is the distance education data that has been collected by IPEDS for the fall 2012, fall 2013, fall 2014 and fall 2015 terms. Results from the national overview show in higher education, 29.7% of all students are taking at least one distance course. The total distance enrollments are composed of 14.3% of students (2,902,756) taking exclusively distance courses and 15.4% (3,119,349) who are taking a combination of distance and nondistance courses. Findings reveal that: (1) overall higher education enrollments are down; (2) most distance enrollments are at larger institutions; (3) distance education enrollment growth is increasing; (4) public institutions host two-thirds of all distance learners; and (5) distance enrollments are primarily undergraduate. [The Digital Learning Compass organization, which conducted this report, is made up of three partners: e-Literate, WCET (WICHE Cooperative for Educational Technologies), and the Babson Survey Research Group.]