Research · High schools - Kentucky · October 2026

How Many High Schools Are in Kentucky? 439 Public and 104 Private

Name: How Many High Schools Are in Kentucky? 439 Public and 104 Private
Creator: Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach)
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

As of October 2026: Kentucky has 543 high schools: 439 public and 104 private. The largest is Lafayette High School in Lexington, with 2,367 students in grades 9 through 12.

The table lists the 15 largest public high schools in Kentucky 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

Kentucky has 543 high schools. 439 are public and 104 are private. The 335 public high schools that report enrollment hold 192,760 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.

Lafayette High School is the largest public high school in Kentucky. It enrolls 2,367 students in grades 9 through 12 in Lexington. The 15th largest school on the table, Frederick Douglass High School in Lexington, enrolls 1,765. None of the 15 largest are charter schools.

The largest private high school in Kentucky is Trinity High School. It enrolls 1,192 students in Louisville. 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 Kentucky

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

High school	City	Students in grades 9-12	Charter
Lafayette High School	Lexington	2,367	No
Ballard High	Louisville	2,141	No
Madison Central High School	Richmond	2,100	No
Larry A. Ryle High School	Union	2,069	No
Bryan Station High School	Lexington	2,026	No
Henry Clay High School	Lexington	1,933	No
duPont Manual High	Louisville	1,898	No
Simon Kenton High School	Independence	1,884	No
McCracken County High School	Paducah	1,879	No
Henderson County High School	Henderson	1,849	No
Central Hardin High School	Cecilia	1,829	No
Paul Laurence Dunbar High School	Lexington	1,820	No
Eastern High	Middletown	1,785	No
Pleasure Ridge Park High	Louisville	1,768	No
Frederick Douglass High School	Lexington	1,765	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 Kentucky

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

High school	City	Students
Trinity High School	Louisville	1,192
Assumption High School	Louisville	874
Lexington Catholic High School	Lexington	724
Notre Dame Academy	Park Hills	528
Mercy Academy	Louisville	508

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 Kentucky

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 Kentucky 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 Kentucky?

Kentucky has 543 high schools: 439 public and 104 private. The largest is Lafayette High School in Lexington, with 2,367 students in grades 9 through 12.

What is the largest high school in Kentucky?

It enrolls 2,367 students in grades 9 through 12 in Lexington.

Are private high schools included in the Kentucky count?

439 are public and 104 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-kentucky.json. Free for editorial use with attribution to Test Prep Gurus (High School Reach).