FACT BRIEF

Have US private schools increased their share of overall enrollment in recent decades?

Sunday, October 4, 2020

By Christopher Hutton

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Overall private school enrollment has declined over the past two decades, falling from 6 million in 1999 to 5.7 million in 2017. In 1999, private schools enrolled 11% of students, falling to 10% in 2017.

The decline was driven by declining enrollment in Catholic schools, which fell from 2.7 million to 2.1 million. Enrollment in other religious schools was steady, while enrollment in non-religious schools climbed to 1.4 million from 1.2 million.

A private-school software vendor said applications for private schools in July 2020 were up 131% from the year before, perhaps driven by uncertainty about public school plans to manage coronavirus risks in the upcoming year. But the outlook remains unclear for the full school year. "We could be seeing anything from disaster to boom‐time for private schools," an education expert at the Cato Institute wrote in early September.

This fact brief is responsive to conversations such as this one.

Sources

Department of Education: Private school enrollment

Net Assets: Rollercoaster enrollment trends during COVID-19

Cato Institute: COVID winners or losers?

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