Private elementary and secondary school enrollment in the United States increased by 82,000 students, or 1.8 percent, between 2011 and 2013, according to a government report released last month. The latest count of private school students (an estimated 4,576,410) by the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) signaled an end to an overall downturn in enrollment for the sector since 2001.
| Percentages of Private School Students in Types of Private Schools | ||||
| Type of School | 1991 | 2001 | 2013 | Growth |
| Catholic | 53.0% | 47.1% | 41.3% | -5.8% |
| Nonsectarian | 14.8% | 16.9% | 21.3% | 4.4% |
| Conservative Christian | 12.0% | 15.4% | 13.4% | -2.0% |
| Baptist | 5.8% | 5.9% | 4.3% | -1.6% |
| Lutheran | 4.4% | 4.1% | 3.4% | -0.7% |
| Jewish | 3.4% | 3.7% | 5.1% | 1.4% |
| Episcopal | 1.8% | 1.9% | 2.1% | 0.2% |
| Adventist | 1.5% | 1.1% | 1.1% | 0.0% |
| Calvinist | 0.9% | 0.7% | 0.5% | -0.2% |
| Friends | 0.3% | 0.4% | 0.4% | 0.0% |
| Islamic | 0.1% | 0.4% | 0.9% | 0.5% |
Private schools tend to be small. According to the report, “The average school size in 2013–14 was 136 students across all private schools.” Also, “The average pupil/teacher ratio in 2013–14 was 10.4 across all private schools.”
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