Research · High schools - Iowa · October 2026

How Many High Schools Are in Iowa? 339 Public and 52 Private

Name: How Many High Schools Are in Iowa? 339 Public and 52 Private
Creator: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

As of October 2026: Iowa has 391 high schools: 339 public and 52 private. The largest is Lincoln High School in Des Moines, with 2,364 students in grades 9 through 12.

The table lists the 15 largest public high schools in Iowa by the number of students in grades 9 through 12.

Analysis: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach, highschoolreach.com), October 2026. Figures and the table may be quoted with attribution to Test Prep Gurus.

The findings, in plain English

Iowa has 391 high schools. 339 are public and 52 are private. The 334 public high schools that report enrollment hold 146,416 students in grades 9 through 12 between them. The private count is a floor, because the federal private school survey is voluntary and a school can skip it.

Lincoln High School is the largest public high school in Iowa. It enrolls 2,364 students in grades 9 through 12 in Des Moines. The 15th largest school on the table, North High School in Sioux City, enrolls 1,529. None of the 15 largest are charter schools.

The largest private high school in Iowa is Dowling Catholic High School. It enrolls 1,389 students in West Des Moines. That is smaller than every public school on the table above. Private schools report total enrollment to the federal survey, so a school that also teaches younger grades counts those students too. Only schools whose lowest grade is 9 are listed here, so each one is a high school.

The 15 largest public high schools in Iowa

Ranked by the number of students in grades 9 through 12.

High school	City	Students in grades 9-12	Charter
Lincoln High School	Des Moines	2,364	No
Linn-Mar High School	Marion	2,229	No
Valley High School	West Des Moines	2,178	No
Roosevelt High School	Des Moines	2,051	No
East High School	Des Moines	1,952	No
Johnston Senior High School	Johnston	1,820	No
Prairie High School	Cedar Rapids	1,766	No
Pleasant Valley High School	Bettendorf	1,731	No
Southeast Polk High School	Pleasant Hill	1,722	No
West High School	Waterloo	1,696	No
Iowa City High School	Iowa City	1,666	No
John F Kennedy High School	Cedar Rapids	1,648	No
Marshalltown High School	Marshalltown	1,629	No
Northwest High School	Waukee	1,574	No
North High School	Sioux City	1,529	No

NCES Common Core of Data, grade 9-12 enrollment. Virtual schools are excluded. Absence from this list means a school is not among the largest, nothing more.

The largest private high schools in Iowa

Private schools whose lowest grade is 9, by total enrollment.

High school	City	Students
Dowling Catholic High School	West Des Moines	1,389
Xavier High School	Cedar Rapids	600
Bishop Heelan Catholic High School	Sioux City	499
Unity Christian High School	Orange City	312
Western Christian High School	Hull	285

NCES Private School Universe Survey 2021-22, respondents only. Total enrollment, not a grades 9-12 count.

What these counts cover

A high school here is a school that serves grade 12. Virtual schools are left out, because a school with no building is not comparable to one with a campus. Public counts come from the federal Common Core of Data, which every public district reports to. Private counts come from the federal Private School Universe Survey.

Enrollment for public schools is the number of students in grades 9 through 12, so a school that also teaches middle school grades is not inflated by them. A school that reports no enrollment figure is counted in the state total but cannot be ranked, which is why the number of schools with an enrollment figure is smaller than the public count.

Private high schools in Iowa

The private table below shows the largest private high schools whose lowest grade is 9. The survey is voluntary, so treat these as the largest among the schools that answered, not a complete ranking. A private school that declines the survey does not appear at all.

Private enrollment is a total, not a grades 9 through 12 count, because the survey does not break it out the same way. Limiting the list to schools that start at grade 9 keeps the figures comparable to each other.

What a family should do with this

Size is a starting point, not a verdict. A large school usually offers more courses, more sports and more clubs, and a small school usually gives a student more contact with the adults who write recommendation letters. Both shapes send students to good colleges.

The more useful question is where a school's own graduates actually go. Our page for each Iowa high school carries that school's figures and, where the school publishes one, its own numbered list of the colleges its graduates chose. Start from the school page rather than from the size of the building.

Questions parents ask

How many high schools are in Iowa?

Iowa has 391 high schools: 339 public and 52 private. The largest is Lincoln High School in Des Moines, with 2,364 students in grades 9 through 12.

What is the largest high school in Iowa?

It enrolls 2,364 students in grades 9 through 12 in Des Moines.

Are private high schools included in the Iowa count?

339 are public and 52 are private. The private count is a floor, because the federal private school survey is voluntary and a school can skip it.

Method & sources: Public school counts and grade 9-12 enrollment come from the NCES Common Core of Data; private counts and enrollment come from the NCES Private School Universe Survey, whose respondents are a floor. A high school is a school serving grade 12; virtual schools are excluded. The public table is ranked by grade 9-12 enrollment, and schools without an enrollment figure are counted in the state total but not ranked.

This brief as data: /research/high-schools-in-iowa.json. Free for editorial use with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).