Research · High schools · October 2026

How many high schools there are in each state, public and private

As of October 2026: The United States has 26,078 public high schools and 7,514 private high schools that answered the federal survey. California has the most public high schools, 2,574, and Florida the most private, 815.

The table counts schools with a twelfth grade in every state, the District of Columbia and three territories. The private count is a floor, because the private survey is voluntary.

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

High schools in each state, public and private

In state order. Public and private counts are separate files and are not comparable in completeness.

A school is counted when it serves grade 12. Public counts come from the federal Common Core of Data and private counts from the federal Private School Universe Survey for 2021-22, which covers respondents only; virtual schools are left out of both. The private survey is voluntary, so private counts are a floor and the true number is higher. Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands appear with private respondents only.

What counts as a high school here

A school is counted if it teaches a twelfth grade. That includes a K-12 school, a 6-12 school and a four-year high school, because all three graduate seniors. Virtual schools are left out, which is why a state with a large online academy gets no credit for it here.

Middle schools and junior highs that stop before twelfth grade are not counted, even when the district calls one of them a high school. So the count is a count of places a student can graduate from, not a count of school buildings.

Why the private count is a floor

The federal private school survey is voluntary. Schools that did not answer are not in the file, so the private number in every row is lower than the real one. The gap is widest among well known independent and boarding schools, several of which answer no wave at all.

Public counts do not have that problem. Every public school reports to the federal file, so the public column is a full count rather than a floor. Guam, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands appear here with private respondents only.

What a family should do with this

This table sets expectations about choice. In a state with hundreds of high schools inside driving distance, open enrollment and magnet programs are usually real options. In a state with one high school per town, the school you have is the school you have, and the work shifts to what you add around it.

Either way, start from your own school's page and the schools nearest it. Reach lists the closest high schools to any school, public and private, with enrollment and trend for each, so you can see what the alternatives actually look like before you move or apply.

Related: High School Explorer · The largest public high schools in America · The largest private high school in each state · Where high schools are growing