Homeschooling Statistics

A good place to get homeschooling statistics is at The National Center for Educational Statistics. They say that up until 1999, there was very little information about the number of homeschool students in the nation.

Number of homeschoolers - They state that in 1999, there were approximately 850,000 homeschoolers in the United States. This accounts for about 1.7% of all school aged children.

In 2003, there were approximately 1.1 million children being home schooled. This accounted for 2.2% of the total population of school aged children. Although the numbers vary some between different studies, you can be fairly sure from all the homeschooling statistics that around 1 million students were home schooled in 2003. Source - http://nces.ed.gov/nhes/homeschool/

Reasons for homeschooling - Some of the top reasons that parents homeschool are:

“A desire to provide religious or moral instruction”
“A concern about environment of other schools”
“A dissatisfaction with academic instruction at other schools”

Other reasons and the percentages affiliated with these statistics can be found at http://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/2009/section1/table-hsc-2.asp

Some other reasons stated included the fact that children had special needs or specific health problems.

More Homeschooling Statistics - Dr. Brian Ray seems to be the expert when it comes to research on homeschool statistics. Here are some of his findings:

As of August 2009 there are approximately 2 million home schooled students in the United States.
The homeschool population tends to grow at the rate of 5-12% per year.
Approximately 15% of homeschool families are non-white/non-Hispanic.
Children’s academic achievement was not related to their parent’s educational degree or teaching certification.
homeschool students “typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public-school students on standardized academic achievement tests” and score above average on the SAT and Act tests.
Homeschool students tend to be above average in social and emotional development and are involved in their community on a regular basis.
As adults homeschoolers are active in their community, vote and attend local meetings more than the average person, "go to and succeed at college at an equal or higher rate than the general population" and "internalize the values and beliefs of their parents at a very high rate."

The full research results can be viewed at https://www.nheri.org/research-facts-on-homeschooling/

Homeschooling Statistics - Parents

Almost every homeschool parent knows that homeschool children can excel at whatever they do if given the proper tools and environment. There are many benefits to homeschooling which give homeschool children an advantage over public school children in most cases. One-on-one tutoring is much more effective and helpful to children than the classroom ratio of 1:25. Not to mention the fact that homeschool parents have a vested interest in seeing their children succeed.

Whether you are homeschooling Kindergarten, Elementary, High School or College, the statistics are in our favor. Homeschooling is a wonderful form of education. It can definitely stretch a parent’s character , emotions, and mental well-being, but with the proper support and determination, homeschooling can be a very rewarding and positive experience for everyone.

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