Fast Facts

Educational institutions

Question:
How many educational institutions exist in the United States?

Response:

During most of the last century, the trend of consolidating small schools brought declines in the total number of public schools in the United States. In 1929–30, there were approximately 248,000 public schools, compared with about 98,000 in 2014–15. However, the number of public schools has increased in recent decades. Between 1988–89 and 2006–07, there was an increase of approximately 15,600 schools. Since 2006–07, the number of public schools has remained relatively stable, varying by about 500 schools or less from year to year.

Since the early 1970s, public school systems have been shifting away from junior high schools (schools consisting of either grades 7 and 8 or grades 7 to 9) and moving toward middle schools (a subset of elementary schools beginning with grade 4, 5, or 6 and ending with grade 6, 7, or 8). Although the number of all elementary schools (schools beginning with grade 6 or below and having no grade higher than 8) was similar in 1970–71 and 2000–01 (64,000 and 64,600, respectively), the number of middle schools was 462 percent higher in 2000–01 than in 1970–71 (11,700 vs. 2,100). During the same period, the number of junior high schools declined by 57 percent (from 7,800 in 1970–71 to 3,300 in 2000–01). Between 2004–05 and 2014–15, the number of all elementary schools rose by 2 percent to 67,100, while the subset of middle schools rose by 6 percent to 13,300. During the same period, the number of junior high schools declined by 17 percent to 2,700.

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2018). Digest of Education Statistics, 2016 (NCES 2017-094), Chapter 2.

Number of educational institutions, by level and control of institution: Selected years, 1980–81 through 2014–15
Level and control of institution	1980–81	1990–91	1999–2000	2004–05	2005–06	2006–07	2007–08	2008–09	2009–10	2010–11	2011–12	2012–13	2013–14	2014–15
Public schools	85,982	84,538	92,012	96,513	97,382	98,793	98,916	98,706	98,817	98,817	98,328	98,454	98,271	98,176
Elementary	59,326	59,015	64,131	65,984	66,026	66,458	67,112	67,148	67,140	67,086	66,689	66,718	67,034	67,073
Secondary	22,619	21,135	22,365	23,445	23,998	23,920	24,643	24,348	24,651	24,544	24,357	24,280	24,053	24,181
Combined	1,743	2,325	4,042	5,572	5,707	5,984	5,899	5,623	5,730	6,137	6,311	6,371	6,205	6,347
Other¹	2,294	2,063	1,474	1,512	1,651	2,431	1,262	1,587	1,296	1,050	971	1,085	979	575
Private schools²	20,764	24,690	32,995	–	35,054	–	33,740	–	33,366	–	30,861	–	33,619	–
Postsecondary Title IV institutions	–	–	6,407	6,383	6,463	6,536	6,551	6,632	6,742	7,021	7,234	7,253	7,236	7,151
Degree-granting institutions	3,231	3,559	4,084	4,216	4,276	4,314	4,352	4,409	4,495	4,599	4,706	4,726	4,724	4,627
2-year colleges	1,274	1,418	1,721	1,683	1,694	1,685	1,677	1,690	1,721	1,729	1,738	1,700	1,685	1,616
4-year colleges	1,957	2,141	2,363	2,533	2,582	2,629	2,675	2,719	2,774	2,870	2,968	3,026	3,039	3,011

–Not available.
¹Includes special education, alternative, and other schools not classified by grade span. Because of changes in survey definitions, figures for "other" schools are not comparable from year to year.
²Data for 1980–81 and 1990–91 include schools with first or higher grades. Data for later years include schools with kindergarten or higher grades.
SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. (2018). Digest of Education Statistics, 2016 (NCES 2017-094), Table 105.50.

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