2026 Patient Recruitment Roundup: Analysis Of Clinical Trial Recruitment And Enrollment Rates, 2022–2025

Enrollment rate is one of the most consequential performance metrics in clinical operations. Despite their importance, industry-wide enrollment benchmarks remain difficult to access due to data fragmentation and variability in how enrollment is defined and reported. This Citeline report leverages the Trialtrove dataset of completed trials to provide granular benchmarks for the 2022–25 period across key dimensions of clinical trial design.

During this time period, the combined median enrollment rate (MER) for industry-sponsored patient trials was 0.37 patients per site per month. Annual figures show a decline into 2024 followed by a slight recovery. Among therapeutic areas, oncology and rare disease recorded the lowest MERs (0.16–0.22), while the infectious disease vaccine category recorded the highest, but most volatile, enrollment rates (up to a MER of 5.38 in 2025). Enrollment duration has risen sharply since 2010 across all phases and more than doubled in Phase I, compounding lower per site rates overall.