In recent years, many private schools have seen enrollment increase

During the COVID-19 pandemic, many private schools offered in-person classes

By early 2021, approximately 76% of private schools offered some form of in-person learning compared with 38% of public schools.

Private schools are generally smaller than public schools

As of 2021, 44% of private schools enrolled fewer than 300 students. By comparison, over 60% of public schools enroll more than 500 students.

Private school demographics in the US

Private school is a costly alternative to public school. As a result, there are numerous demographic differences between public and private school attendees, typically tied to income level. This source presents the latest statistics about private school attendance, as well as a searchable database to see the differences for schools near you.

Approximately 10% of American K-12 students are enrolled in private schools

Around 75% of those students attend religiously affiliated institutions. In Hawaii and Washington, DC, 19% of students attend private schools, the highest enrollment percentages in the country.

Homeschooling doubled during the Coronavirus pandemic

After explosive growth, the trend continued. During the 2024-2025 school year, it increased at an average rate of 4.9%, nearly three times the pre-pandemic rate of around 2%.

Fewer middle-class students now attend private schools

Stanford professor Sean Reardon says there are two primary reasons behind this trend. The first is that many parochial schools, which tend to offer more affordable tuition, have closed. The second is that tuition for the remaining private schools has outpaced middle-class salaries.

Economists warn that private schools can negatively affect public schools

Lower public school enrollment often means less public school funding. Private school parents, however, frequently argue that public schools simply aren’t offering the right education for their children. This podcast episode investigates that back-and-forth in San Francisco, where 30% of children attend private schools, nearly three times the national figure.

Private schools don’t inherently boost student performance

High test scores in private schools often reflect affluent, selective student bodies—not superior instruction. Studies show that private school advantages stem largely from socioeconomic factors and admission policies, not institutional quality.

The university system has an enrollment problem

Enrollment has dropped over the past few years—especially for men. In this Freakonomics podcast episode, educators and economists explain why they think college enrollment has been on the decline. They also offer solutions and make predictions for the future of college.

US school distrists have greatly consolidated since 1940

Consolidation significantly decreased the number of independent school districts from approximately 117,000 in 1940 to just over 13,000 today, mainly driven by efforts to boost efficiency and balance funding across communities.

How student loans became incredibly prevalent

As of 2024, the total outstanding federal student loan debt sat at $1.6T, held by almost 43 million borrowers. Explore the history of student loans and how they became prevalent in the US, as told by several influential actors in the creation of the program over the years.

Private equity's expansion into healthcare has been criticized for raising patient medical costs

Between 2000 and 2018, PE's total investment in healthcare ballooned from $5B to $100B. While healthcare systems originally began consolidating as a solution to navigating complex regulations (and to make working with insurance companies easier), research suggests that private equity has both increased patient costs and decreased the quality of care in hospitals and doctors' offices.

From 2014-25, US private sector data center investments have increased more than 25-fold

The annualized rate of US data center construction has ballooned from $1.6B to $41.1B, creating a market for data centers whose infrastructure costs and land, power, and transmission capacity demands rival those of offices and industrial facilities.

70 years after Brown v. Board, segregation remains in American schools

Despite being ruled unconstitutional in 1954, racial segregation persists: large shares of Black and Hispanic students still attend schools where most classmates are students of color. Recent trends show that segregation has increased across many urban districts since the 1990s.

The United States faces a sizeable teacher shortage

Teacher vacancies have surged since 2017, with each year opening more positions than hires. Educators are quitting in record numbers, citing low pay and burnout. Today, there are 567,000 fewer education professionals than before the pandemic.

Striking demographic trends from 2022

This article lists the 15 most striking research findings by Pew Research Center in 2022. The topics highlighted represent a sample of the Center’s research, compiled through surveys. Findings examine public opinion around the biggest news events...

9 states still offer prepaid tuition plans

Prepaid tuition plans, a type of 529 plan that locks in tuition rates when opened, are only offered in nine states for new enrollment. In addition to the nine states’ plans, there’s also a national plan for a network of 300 private colleges.

Evaluating college endowment returns

According to a new study, US college and university endowments achieved an average net return of 11.2% in fiscal year 2024. Harvard University maintained its position as the largest endowment, valued at $53.2B. Read this Forbes article to learn more about how institutions manage and grow their financial resources through endowments.

Explaining the rise in adult sports leagues

Community sports leagues shifted from publicly supported entities to privatized ones in the 1990s, as tech advances streamlined registration processes. Millennial interest drove significant growth in social sports leagues for adults, growing much faster than other kinds of sports. A few industry leaders have benefited from this shift.

Concierge medicine offerings are growing on college campuses, catering to students

Parents are interested in concierge and direct primary care services for their kids, including offerings with dorm visits, guaranteed same-day appointments, and medication access, so new practices have sprung up catering to college settings. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

Girls are hitting puberty earlier than ever before

Around the world, there has been a spike in children—especially girls—experiencing early puberty and doctors are seeking to understand why. The rise has been particularly strong post-2020. Early-maturing girls are at a higher risk for developing...

See the polio cases that occur worldwide each year by region

Worldwide, the number of cases of polio reported each year from 1980 to 2024 has declined. This graphic depicts regional trends and declines by year.

'Floating rate' loans periodically adjust their interest rates in accordance with economic conditions

When the Federal Reserve began raising interest rates in 2022 to combat inflation, interest payments borrowers owed to private credit lenders increased accordingly. Private credit funds benefited as loan returns increased, making the asset class attractive to investors at the time.

1 in 31 kids in the US has autism

That figure comes from an analysis published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention based on data gathered on eight-year-olds in 2022. Its figures mark a significant increase from 2000, when the estimated autism figure was one in 150, but improvements in diagnosis and changes to the disease criteria that broadened the diagnostic criteria are widely believed to be driving that increase.

72% of Americans say tipping is now expected in more places than it was 5 years ago

This change has been driven by multiple factors, including point-of-sale systems from fintech companies such as Square that prompt customers for tips directly. Americans also increased tipping during the pandemic in an effort to support local businesses struggling financially due to a lack of physical foot traffic.

Roughly 43 million US borrowers owe roughly $1.7T in student debt, the second-largest source of consumer debt behind mortgages.

US housing costs have risen by roughly 175% between 1991 and 2026—but a growing number of Gen Zers are becoming homeowners anyway. In 2025, 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

44% of Americans say they pray at least once a day—discover how your state's religiosity stacks up against the rest of the country.

Fast-casual restaurant Chili's is experiencing a resurgence, with its parent company recently reporting a nearly 32% increase in sales, thanks to passionate Gen Z fans on TikTok.

Children are now three times more likely to say they want to be a YouTuber when they grow up than an astronaut, with some even attending 'YouTube camps' that teach kids how to create content for the platform.

The USPS spent $3.97B in 2024, accounting for .058% of the federal budget.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Dozens of S&P 500 stocks, including Coca-Cola and Walmart—known as the dividend aristocrats—have increased dividends every year for 25 years

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

An initial public offering or 'IPO' is the process of a private company becoming public by putting shares of the company on the stock market for purchase.

While El Niño moves warm Pacific Ocean waters east along the equator, La Niña moves them west, shifting where rainfall will become more common for months.

The hormonal disorder PCOS was renamed PMOS in 2026, a move designed to improve care and research by shifting the focus to the hormonal causes of this condition that affects 1 in 8 women.

A Yale student wrote a profound essay about the consulting industry's influence on elite college students that was published in a book of her writing after she died in a post-graduation car accident.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

In 2026, Finland was named the world's happiest country for the ninth consecutive year based on its wealth, social safety network, and high life expectancy, among other factors.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

NBA superstar Victor Wembanyama spent the 2025 summer training with monks in central China to enhance his body and mind.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.

Explore what it's like inside a patient isolation unit, used in situations such as treating a patient or suspected patient with Ebola.

The 19th-century painters of the Hudson River School were among the first American romantics, with portraits that displayed the natural beauty of the young country.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.