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Enrollment trends

Question:
What are the enrollment trends in public and private elementary and secondary schools?

Response:

Enrollment in elementary and secondary institutions by level of institution: Selected years, fall 1985 through fall 2021
Year Elementary and
secondary, total
Public elementary and secondary schools Private elementary and secondary schools
Total Prekindergarten
through grade 81
Grades 9
through 121
Total Prekindergarten
through grade 8
Grades 9
through 12
Fall 1985 44,979 39,422 27,034 12,388 5,557 4,195 1,362
Fall 1990 46,864 41,217 29,876 11,341 5,6482 4,5122 1,1362
Fall 1995 50,759 44,840 32,338 12,502 5,918 4,756 1,163
Fall 2000 53,373 47,204 33,686 13,517 6,1692 4,9062 1,2642
Fall 2005 55,187 49,113 34,204 14,909 6,073 4,724 1,349
Fall 2010 54,867 49,484 34,625 14,860 5,3822 4,0842 1,2992
Fall 2011 54,790 49,522 34,773 14,749 5,268 3,977 1,291
Fall 2012 55,104 49,771 35,018 14,753 5,3332 4,0312 1,3022
Fall 2013 55,440 50,045 35,251 14,794 5,396 4,084 1,312
Fall 2014 55,888 50,313 35,370 14,943 5,5752 4,2022 1,3732
Fall 2015 56,189 50,438 35,388 15,050 5,751 4,304 1,446
Fall 2016 56,369 50,615 35,477 15,138 5,7542 4,2932 1,4602
Fall 2017 56,406 50,686 35,496 15,190 5,720 4,252 1,468
Fall 2018 56,304 50,694 35,498 15,196 5,6102 4,1672 1,4432
Fall 2019 56,282 50,796 35,551 15,246 5,486 4,066 1,420
Fall 2020 55,377 49,375 34,061 15,314 6,0023 4,4963 1,5063
Fall 2021 55,493 49,433 33,998 15,436 6,0603 4,5443 1,5163

1 Includes ungraded students as well as students whose grade was not specified. These students were prorated into either the prekindergarten through grade 8 level or the grades 9 through 12 level based on the known grade-level distribution of a state.
2 Estimated based on data appearing in Projections of Education Statistics.
3 Projected data.

NOTE: Data in this table represent the 50 states and the District of Columbia. Elementary and secondary enrollment includes students in local public school systems and in most private schools (religiously affiliated and nonsectarian), but generally excludes homeschooled children and students in subcollegiate departments of colleges and in federal schools. Excludes preprimary students in private schools that do not offer kindergarten or higher grades. Projections in this table were calculated after the onset of the coronavirus pandemic and take into account the expected impacts of the pandemic. Some data have been revised from previously published figures. Detail may not sum to totals because of rounding.

SOURCE: National Center for Education Statistics. (2023). Table 105.30. Enrollment in elementary, secondary, and degree-granting postsecondary institutions, by level and control of institution: Selected years, 1869-70 through fall 2031 [Data table]. In Digest of education statistics. U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences. Retrieved October 3, 2023, from https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d22/tables/dt22_105.30.asp.

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