Homeschool Stats - Schoolhouse Connect

Homeschooling Around the World

The next time you sit down around the table or at the desk to homeschool, remember that families just like yours are doing the same thing all around the world. We’d like to show you what families in The Old Schoolhouse® community look like, but first, have a look at countries leading the way in homeschooling around the world:

United States: 2.04 million children homeschooled in 2010.¹ (Current numbers suggest as high as 3.5 million, now)
Canada: An estimated 60,000-80,000 homeschoolers in 2006 has risen to approximately 100,000 today.²
United Kingdom: Numbers of homeschoolers range from 20,000 to 100,000 children.³
Australia: An estimated 20,000 homeschooling and distance education students in 1995 has risen to approximately 30,000 families in 2012.⁴
Israel: Hundreds of families across the entire country have chosen to homeschool, and the movement is growing.⁵
Japan: As many as 1,000 to 5,000 families were thought to be homeschooling as of 2011.⁶
China: Numbers range from an estimated 2,000 to 18,000 homeschooled students.⁷
Bulgaria: Despite extreme opposition, families in Bulgaria attended the Eighth National Homeschool Conference in July 2013.⁸
India: Two hundred people from across the country attended an Indian homeschool conference in February 2013, and the movement is growing rapidly.⁹
Poland: The number of homeschooled students has increased from approximately 40-50 students in 2009 to approximately 1,500 in May 2013.¹⁰
Malaysia: In a recent article, a representative of Learning Beyond Schooling told HSLDA that “Malaysia is experiencing a vibrant ‘explosion’ of alternative education, especially homeschooling.”¹¹

So, Who Are We?

The Old Schoolhouse^® Magazine (TOS) commissioned a major survey in fall 2014; we asked 121,000 homeschooling families to describe themselves. Over 5,000 responded. Here’s what our comprehensive survey found.*

We homeschool multiple children, with 70 percent of respondents schooling two or more children and more than a third (36 percent) three or more children. The students cross all ages, evenly split between 5-8, 9-11, and 12-15, and nearly a quarter of our respondents are educating a student finishing high school (23 percent have a student aged 16-18).

We’re stable (94 percent are married and 75 percent own or are paying off their homes); people of faith (83 percent attend church weekly or, at a minimum, multiple times each month); educated (73 percent have a college associates degree through doctorate, or a professional trade degree); and 90 percent of respondents earn $30,000 annually or more (49 percent of the total have household incomes of $30,000– $70,000).

Our community uses a wide variety of curriculum and methods, with 79 percent saying they employ a combination of teaching approaches: classical, Charlotte Mason, unit studies, eclectic, packaged, and more; and a vast majority of our readers use a combination of print, video, online, downloaded, and packaged curriculum.

Our families search for the best curriculum choices, and are honest about areas in which they struggle to find the right materials. For instance, 18 percent told us they struggle to find science/lab/chem/physics materials, 16 percent have difficulty finding the best history/social studies/geography curriculum, 15 percent are looking for the right math/algebra/geometry, and 13 percent struggle to find the best English/language arts/grammar lessons for their children. (In seven more areas—from spelling to foreign languages to writing—2 percent or more of respondents say they have difficulty finding the best materials for their children.)

Our readership pulls from more than 270 different websites and online curriculum providers for their lesson material, meaning that our tribe of readers literally scans the globe, and the Internet, for their lessons.

Diverse market: Homeschooling is growing among minority markets, with 15 percent of current homeschoolers non-white/non-Anglo. Also, a demographically wide variety homeschool: Christians, Mormons, atheists, conservatives, liberals, libertarians, those with college degrees and advanced degrees, and families with only one or no college degree. The market is committed to academic performance and achievement: The home-educated typically score 15 to 30 percentile points above public school students on standardized academic achievement tests.

Connected online: The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine readers have downloaded close to 100,000 of the app for our magazine. (iTunes, Google Play, Amazon.com/Kindle – www.TOSApps.com). In addition, the magazine company’s social media is exploding. As of 2018, we have over 250,000 followers and 2019’s projections are much higher. (Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, the company blog, etc.). Inbox marketing list is over 70k.

Wherever you homeschool, remember that your friends at The Old Schoolhouse^® Magazine are here to help you bring your children home where they belong.

* Our confidence level in this survey is 99 percent (with a confidence interval of an extremely low margin for error: 2.86 percent). Survey commissioned by marketing professional Brad Doll for The Old Schoolhouse® Magazine, LLC, November–December 2014.

Additional source:

National Home Education Research Institute, Brian Ray, Ph.D, January 6, 2015; http://nheri.org/research/research-facts-on-homeschooling.html