How Many High Schools Are In The US (2024)

High or senior high schools provide education to students in the final stage of secondary education in the U.S. The number fluctuates whenever the question arises of how many high schools are in the US. 

You might be wondering the same question regarding the number of schools and the enrollment rates of students in public and private schools.

To answer these questions, I have compiled all the essential statistics relevant to U.S. high schools, enrollments in public and private schools, charter schools, etc.

Top Picks: Schools In the US

1. As of 2022-23, the total number of high schools in the US is around 30,160.
2. High school enrollment has reached around 50.6 million students
3. The U.S. comprises about 130,930 K-12 schools as of 2020. 
4. The rate of enrollment at U.S. schools slightly rose between the year 2020 to 2021 (census.gov). 
5. The graduation rate of high schools in the US is 85.3%.
6. Among the total high schools in the US, there are 23,882 public schools and 2,845 private schools as of 2021.
7. As per the data from admissionsly.com, among the total high schools in the US there are over 15.3 million students.
8. In 2020, over 1.5 million students enrolled in private schools in the US.
9. The federal, state and local governments spend around $764.7 billion on public schools, i.e., $15,120 per pupil. 
10. Approximately 10% of U.S. schools are private, and around 25% of the students in the United States go to private schools.
11. Around 5.06 million students enrolled in secondary and High schools in the year 2020. 
12. In 2020, more than 3,209,510 students graduated from high school in the US.
13. The dropout rate for high schools in the US is 6%. 
14. There were 7,547 charter schools throughout the United States from 2019 to 2020.
15. The state of California has 3,892 high schools, which is the most of any state in the US.
16. Delaware has the fewest high schools of any state in the US. There are only 83 high schools in Delaware.
17. Even though the District of Columbia is not a state, it has only 72 high schools, which is the fewest of any state.

Public High Schools In The U.S. 

Public Schools are educational institutions that receive funding from the federal, state, and local governments. 

The main aim of public schools is to ensure that education is available to all children, even those with financial difficulties. 

Below are some of the important statistics related to public schools that you may go through. 

18. The number of Public Schools in the United States was demonstrated to be 98,755 for the year 2022-23.  

19. As per the U.S. news, there are around 23,872 public high schools in 50 states and the District of Columbia as of 2022.

20. Among the total number of high schools in the US, public schools accounts for 91% of all the high schools

Below is the data to learn more about public schools and their enrollments.

Enrollment In Public School.

21. The total number of high school enrollment for public high schools was 15,492,000 for the year 2022.

22. Around 49.5 million students enrolled in public schools from prekindergarten to 12th grade, and 15.4 million attended grades 9th to 12th in the fall of 2021.

23. The average enrollment of public schools is around 528 students per school, and it is estimated to increase at a rate of 23.9%. 

Let’s have a look at the high school enrollment for public schools over the years.

Year	Public school Enrollment
2027*	14,760,000
2026*	15,021,000
2025*	15,285,000
2024	15,502,000
2023	15,574,000
2022	15,575,000
2021	15,458,000
2020	15,3.61,000
2019	15,246,000
2018	15,196,000
2017	15,190,000

According to the data from NCES, it is seen that most of the students who enrolled in public schools were white.

The data below shows students’ enrollment in the public school as per ethnicity for the years 2020 and 2021.

Sr.No.	Ethnicities	Enrollments (in millions)
1	White	23.6 million
2	Hispanic	13.83 million
3	Black	7.64 million
4	Asian	2.74 million
5	Two or more races	2.16 million
6	American Indian/Alaska Native.	0.48 million
7	Pacific Islanders	0.19 million

Source: NCES.

Spendings.

24. For the academic years 2019 and 2020, the public elementary and secondary schools projected a per-student expenditure of $13,440. 

The given data represent the state-wise spending on public schools.

Sr.No	States	Spendings (In Dollars)
1	New York	$24040
2	District of Columbia	$22759
3	Connecticut	$20635
4	New Jersey	$20021
5	Vermont	$19340

Source: educationdata.org.

25. As per UNESCO, the United States spends around 11.6% of public funds on schools, which is less as compared to the international benchmark of 15%. 

26. According to the report by OECD (2022), The United States ranks sixth in terms of the funds provided per pupil among the 37 developed nations in the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development)

Public School Statistics By State. 

27. California, Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois have the maximum public school enrollments as compared to other U.S. states. (EDI 2021)

States	Number Of Public Schools	Enrollment In A Million	Fall In Enrollment Since 1990 (In%)
California	10,430.	6.28 million.	26.7%
Texas	8,975.	5.9 million.	60.6%
Florida	4,181	2.91 million	52.9%
New York	1,796.	2.7 million	3.9%
Illinois	4,345.	1.9 million	8.8%

Source: EDI,2021, Statista (2019).

28. California State has the maximum number of public schools, i.e. 10,430 (as per Statista 2019), with an enrollment of about 6.22 million students. 

Private High Schools In The U.S. 

Private schools are institutions that do not receive funding from the government; rather than they are funded by tuition fees from students, donations and private grants. 

29. Around 32, 461 private schools exist in the United States

30. Among the total private schools in the US, there were around 3,700 private high schools in 2019-20.

Let’s now have a quick overview of the high school enrollment for private schools in the US over the years.

Year	Private School Enrollment
2027*	1,455
2026*	1,458
2025*	1,464
2024	1,484
2023	1,542
2022	1,535
2021	1,512
2020	1,502
2019	1,420
2018	1,443
2017	1,468

Most private schools in the United States have religious orientations. To learn more, you can check the below data.

The table below represents the number of U.S. private schools according to religious orientation for the year 2017-18. 

Common Religious Orientations.	Number of Schools
Roman Catholic	6948
Christian (Unspecified)	4209
Baptist	1569
Amish	1474
Jewish	922
Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.	868

Source: NCES Private School Universe Survey. 

Enrollment In Private Schools. 

22. According to the data from 2019 to 2020, the percentage of students in private schools per ethnicity is higher for Pacific Islanders than for other races. 

Given below is the enrollment of the students in the private schools as per ethnicity. 

Sr.No.	Ethnicities	Enrollment (In Percentage)
1	Pacific Islander	15%
2	White	12%
3	Asian	10%
4	Other races	10%
5	Black	6%
6	American Indian	5%
7	Hispanic	4%

Source: NCES.

Spendings.

Private elementary schools cost less compared to private high schools. To get an insight into the private high school tuition fees, read on further. 

The following data shows the average tuition fees for the year 2020-2021 for Private high schools according to the states in the U.S. 

Sr.No.	State	Average High School Tuition (In Dollars)
1	Massachusetts	$33,672
2	Vermont	$32,117
3	District of Columbia	$29,688
4	New Hampshire	$28,897
5	New York	$25,108
6	Michigan	$10,825
7	Wisconsin	$8,370
8	Montana	$8,117
9	Kentucky	$8,072
10	Nebraska	$7,798

Source: thinkimpact.com 

23. The District of Columbia is the second most expensive state, and Vermont is the fourth most expensive state for average private tuition fees in the United States. 
24. Nebraska is the second least expensive state for average private school tuition cost. 

Private School Statistics By State. 

Here are the number of private elementary and secondary schools in different states of the U.S. for the year 2019. 

States	Number Of Schools.
California	3,220
Florida	2,510
Pennsylvania	2,460
Texas	1,740
New York	1,660
Ohio	1,290
Illinois	1,280
New Jersey	1,070
Virginia	1,020
Wisconsin	890

25. California in the United States comprised 3,220 private elementary and secondary schools in the year 2019. 

Public vs Private High Schools. 

When both public and private schools are taken into consideration, it is found that the maximum number of students are enrolled in public schools than private schools. 

26. Around 14.96 million students are enrolled in public high schools, whereas 1.3 million students are enrolled in private high schools in the year 2020, according to Statista. 

According to the data from High-schools.com, 

27. There are about 33,370 public high schools in the United States.
28. There are around 9,264 private high schools in the United States.
29. Altogether, there are around 42,634 High schools in the United States.

The data provided below represents the high school enrollments for public and private schools from the year 2015 to 2030.

Year	Public School Enrollment	Private School Enrollment.
2015	15,050	1,446
2016	15,138	1,482
2017	15,190	1,468
2018	15,196	1,443
2019	15,246	1,420
2020	15,316	1,502
2021	15,458	1,512
2022	15,575	1,535
2023	15,574	1,542
2024	15,502	1,484
2025	15,285	1,464
2026	15,021	1,458
2027	14,854	1,455
2028	14,760	1,463
2029	14,863	1,397
2030	14,992	1,311

Source: Statista. 

Charter Schools. 

Charter schools are independently operated public institutions that are free from certain rules and regulations as compared to traditional public schools. 

30. Around 7% of public schools are charter schools, and 3.1 million elementary and high school students attend Charter schools. 

To determine the number of Charter schools in the United States, go through the table below representing the number of charter schools from 2008 to 2020.

Year	Number of Charter schools.
2008-2009	4,694
2009-2010	4,952
2010-2011	5,274
2011-2012	5,696
2012-2013	6,079
2013-2014	6,465
2014-2015	6,747
2015-2016	6,855
2016-2017	7,011
2017-2018	7,193
2018-2019	7,427
2019-2020	7,547

Source: Statista. 

High School Teacher Statistics

1. According to the data from Thinkimpact, there are over 1.8 million high school teachers in the US.
2. Among the total number of high school teachers, 64% were female teachers.
3. 45% of high schools had teachers whose jobs were to be specialists or academic coaches.

Let’s have a look at the high school teachers as per their degrees and experience.

Degree/Experience	% of Teachers
Standard teaching certificate or advanced professional certificate	90%
Baccalaureate degree	61%
Ten to twenty years of teaching experience	40%
Less than 3 years of experience	9%

High School Graduation Rates

4.  As per the recent data from thinkimpact, as of 2021, the graduation rate in the US was 85.3%.
5. The graduation rate for students with disabilities was 67.% in the year 22021.
6. In the year 2020, around 3,650,000 students graduated from high school.

Related Read:

• Teaching Statistics
• How Many Colleges Should I Apply
• How Much Do Teachers Earn
• College Student Statistics
• Average College Professor Salary

The U.S. has and is still fulfilling its commitment to provide world-class education to students. The public schools have turned out to be a helping hand in providing more accessible and affordable learning to students. 

Whether it is a public or a private school, maintaining high educational standards and providing fair and equal opportunities to all students is the main aim. 

I hope the article helped you learn different facts and figures regarding public and private U.S. high schools.

Let us know your thoughts and queries in the comments section below.