There are about 2.3 million home-educated students in the United States as of spring 2016. This is up from one estimate that there were about two million children — in grades K to 12 — home educated during the spring of 2010 in the United States (Ray, 2011). It appears the homeschool population is continuing to grow at an estimated two to eight percent per annum over the past few years.
Homeschooling is an age-old traditional educational practice that a decade ago appeared to be cutting-edge and “alternative” but is now bordering on “mainstream” in the United States. It may be the fastest-growing form of education in the United States.
A demographically wide variety of people homeschool — these are atheists, Christians, and Mormons; conservatives, libertarians, and liberals; low-, middle-, and high-income families; black, Hispanic, and white; parents with Ph.D.s, GEDs, and no high-school diplomas. One study shows that 32 percent of homeschool students are Black, Asian, Hispanic, and others (i.e., not White/non-Hispanic) (Noel, Stark, & Redford, 2013).
Families engaged in home-based education are not dependent on public, tax-funded resources for their children’s education. The finances associated with their homeschooling likely represent over $27 billion that American taxpayers do not have to spend, annually, since these children are not in public schools
Taxpayers spend an average of $11,732 per pupil in public schools, plus capital expenditures. Taxpayers spend nothing on most homeschool students and homeschool families spend an average of $600 per student for their education.
Homeschooling is quickly growing in popularity among minorities. About 15 percent of homeschool families are non-white/nonHispanic (i.e., not white/Anglo).
An estimated 3.4 million U.S. adults have been homeschooled for at least one year of their K-12 years, and they were homeschooled an average of six to eight years. If one adds to this number the 2.3 million being homeschooled today, an estimated 5.7 million Americans have experienced being homeschooled.