Public school market share holds steady
A look at market share in 2024-25 in North Carolina, by educational sector
Public schools served 84% of North Carolina students in the 2024-25 school year. That number is about the same as last year.
EdNC previously reported that after the General Assembly fully funded school choice expansion, an estimated 6,710 of 80,325 students — just 8.4% — receiving vouchers to attend private school had attended public schools the prior school year.
Over the past 10 years, on average, private school enrollment has increased annually by 4,224 students and the number of schools has increased by 21. In 2024-25, the increases were by 4,508 students and 49 schools.
The disparity between the estimated 6,710 who were new to private schools and the 4,508 may be attributed to in-migration, data variations, and churn among the sectors: each year some families who try on private or homeschool for their students return to public schools.
With 135,738 students in private school in 2024-25, and according to the final data for the year, 80,472 recipients of vouchers, it appears about 55,266 private school students are not receiving vouchers. Some of those students may have applied for a voucher in the spring cycle.
Other students attend private schools that are not eligible to receive program funds. More than 600 of the 930 private schools are currently registered as “direct payment” schools.
Market share is a term used to describe how many students are served by different sectors of schools, including public schools, private schools, and homeschools.
In 2024-25, here was the enrollment by sector of students in schools across North Carolina:
| Sector | Number of students, 2024-25 | Market share (% by sector) |
|---|---|---|
| 2,467 local public schools | 1,380,910 (calculated based on p. 7 of the source) | |
| 208 public charter schools | 156,524 (see p. 33) | |
| 7 public lab schools | 989 (see p. 34) | |
| 1 public regional school | 140 (see p. 34) | |
| Public subtotal | 1,538,563 (see p. 1) | 84% |
| 930 private schools | 135,738 | 7% |
| 101,880 homeschools | 165,243 (estimated) | 9% |
A recent analysis by Carolina Demography forecasts the number of students enrolled in North Carolina public schools could drop over the next five years.
Meanwhile, charter school enrollment is growing.
There are two ongoing challenges in looking at market share in North Carolina. Unlike the data for the other educational sectors, the data on the number of students enrolled in homeschools is an estimate. Another challenge is what denominator to use. Many researchers just add up the number of students across the sectors and use that for the denominator, as we did here. Others look to projections of how many students should be in each county.
New data on other sectors of schools
The North Carolina Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE) recently released their 2024-25 annual statistical summary reports on homeschooling and private schools.
Below, find visualizations of this year’s data as well as historical trends for private and homeschools.
Private schools
Private school enrollment continued to rise this year, with an estimated total of 135,738 students enrolled in private schools across the state of North Carolina. That’s an increase of 3.4% since last year — a smaller increase than between 2022-23 and 2023-24.
Below, see a visualization of private school enrollment by county during the 2024-25 school year.
11 counties had zero private school enrollment, according to the report. Most of those counties haven’t had any private school enrollment for the past ten years. The counties were:
- Alleghany
- Ashe
- Camden
- Caswell
- Gates
- Graham
- Jones
- Martin
- Perquimans
- Tyrrell
- Washington
Edgecombe County had an enrollment of just three, according to the report.
See the full report on private schools here, which includes enrollment breakdowns by sex, by type of school — independent or religious — and the number of private schools by county.
Homeschools
The number of homeschools in North Carolina continued to increase, after the number rose for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic in 2023-24. Once again, the number of homeschools has surpassed 100,000 across the state.
This year, according to DNPE data, there were 101,880 homeschools.
EdNC focuses its reporting on the number of registered homeschools rather than homeschool enrollment since the number of students enrolled in homeschools is an estimate.
See previous reporting on homeschool data here.
The rate of change in the number of homeschools increased this year, a potential sign that homeschooling will continue to rebound after a sharp spike and fall in the years following the pandemic.
Below, see a visualization of the number of home schools by county during the 2024-25 school year.
See the full report on homeschools here, which includes a breakdown of religious versus independent schools, estimated enrollment by age, and estimated enrollment by county.