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See a map of private school enrollment in North Carolina, and other market share data

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The vast majority of North Carolina students attend public schools, but enrollment in traditional public schools is decreasing. Though the proportion of students in public schools remained roughly the same as previous years in the 2025-26 school year, private school enrollment continued to rise following the expansion of the Opportunity Scholarship, North Carolina’s private school voucher program.

According to Division of Non-Public Education (DNPE) data, the number of private school students statewide increased by 8,260 last year and the number of private schools increased by 67 to 997 total.

A map created by EdNC using the DNPE data shows that private school enrollment is low in some rural counties, some of which don’t have any private school options at all. There are 11 counties with zero private schools in North Carolina — the same as last year.

Any student across the state is eligible to receive private school vouchers — state funding for private school tuition — regardless of family income, after the legislature expanded school choice and granted access to universal vouchers in 2023. There are still different award tiers for different family income levels.

Meanwhile, the number of registered homeschools decreased from 101,880 in the 2024-25 school year to 95,190 in the 2025-26 school year, after increasing the previous year. The number of homeschools peaked during the pandemic at 112,614. (EdNC focuses its reporting on the number of homeschools, rather than homeschool enrollment, because DNPE data only estimates enrollment.)

See EdNC’s previous recap of this year’s data, and a breakdown of market share in education:

Market share declines for homeschools, increases for private schools, holds steady for public schools overall

Below, see maps showing private school enrollment by county and the number of homeschools by county for the 2025-26 school year.

And here are the historical trends of total private school enrollment and the total number of homeschools:

See the full private school data here. See the full homeschool data here.