How Many Kids Are Homeschooled in the US?

How many kids are homeschooled in the United States? The best federal estimate says about 3.4 percent of K-12 students as of the 2022-23 school year, up from 2.8 percent before the pandemic.^[1] The Washington Post's district-level analysis put the total between 1.9 and 2.7 million children.^[4] Underneath both numbers sits the honest answer: in much of the country no one is required to report a homeschooled child to anyone, so every count is an estimate.

Key points

• Federal survey data puts homeschooling at 2.8 percent of students in 2018-19 and 3.4 percent in 2022-23.^[1][2]
• Census Bureau surveys found the share of households homeschooling jumped from 5.4 percent to 11.1 percent in fall 2020.^[3]
• The Washington Post counted 51 percent growth over six school years in the 18 states with comparable data.^[4]
• Johns Hopkins researchers tracking state records found homeschooling still growing after the pandemic, with a third of reporting states hitting record highs in 2024-25.^[5]

The official numbers

The National Center for Education Statistics measures homeschooling through periodic household surveys. Its own long-run figures show the practice growing from 1.7 percent of students in 1999 to 2.8 percent, about 1.5 million kids, in 2019.^[2] Pew's analysis of the latest federal data is the cleanest summary: about one in thirty American students is homeschooled.^[1] Because these come from surveys rather than a registry, the figures carry real uncertainty, which is why serious estimates are given as ranges.

The pandemic spike

Homeschooling roughly doubled when schools closed. The Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey found 5.4 percent of households with school-age children homeschooling in spring 2020 and 11.1 percent by that fall.^[3] The Post's follow-up found the numbers came down from the peak but stayed well above pre-pandemic levels, and kept climbing in hundreds of districts.^[4]

Still growing after the pandemic

The growth did not stop when schools reopened. The Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, which tracks the state records that do exist, found homeschool enrollment rising at an average of 4.9 percent in 2024-25, roughly three times the pre-pandemic growth rate, with more than a third of reporting states setting all-time highs.^[5]

Why nobody knows for sure

Reporters had to build the national picture district by district because many states simply have no mechanism that counts homeschooled kids.^[4] That is starting to shift: Connecticut created a registration system in 2026, which means the state will know how many of its children are homeschooled for the first time (Tess Ulrey of CRHE explains on the show).^[6]

Why the count matters

This is not trivia. Services, research, and child-safety policy all depend on knowing the population exists. Dr. Jonah Stewart, an education researcher and homeschool alum, has talked on the show about how little solid data researchers have to work with (that conversation is here). You cannot study, fund, or protect kids you cannot count.

Watch the episode: What Homeschooling Taught a Future Education Researcher

Related reading: is homeschooling regulated?, or browse all the news and stories.

Sources

1. Pew Research Center, A look at homeschooling in the U.S.
2. National Center for Education Statistics, Fast Facts: Homeschooling
3. U.S. Census Bureau, Homeschooling on the Rise During COVID-19 Pandemic
4. The Washington Post, How many kids are homeschooled in the U.S.? Growth by school district
5. Johns Hopkins Institute for Education Policy, Homeschool Growth 2024-2025
6. CT Mirror, CT adopts homeschool regulation