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By, National Household Education Surveys Program

Until 1999, little empirical information existed about the prevalence of homeschooling nationally (Bielick, Chandler, and Broughman 2001). In 1999 and 2003, the National Household Education Surveys Program (NHES) collected nationally representative data that can be used to estimate the number of homeschooled students in the United States. Data from the 1999 NHES showed that there were an estimated 850,000 homeschoolers in the United States, about 1.7 percent of the school-age population (Bielick, Chandler, and Broughman 2001).

Students are defined as children ages 5 through 17 with a grade equivalent of kindergarten through grade 12 (K12). Interviews were conducted with the parents of 11,994 students (239 of whom were homeschooled). When weighted properly, these data represent approximately 50 million students ages 5 through 17 with a grade equivalent of K through 12 in the United States in 2003.

Students are considered to be homeschooled if their parents reported them as being schooled at home instead of at a public or private school for at least part of their education and if their part-time enrollment in public or private schools did not exceed 25 hours a week.

Number and Percentage of Homeschooled Students in the United States
About 1.1 million students (1,096,000) were being homeschooled in the United States in the spring of 2003. This represents an increase from the estimated 850,000 students who were being homeschooled in the spring of 1999. In addition, the estimated homeschooling rate (the percentage of the school-age population that was being homeschooled) increased from 1.7 percent in 1999 to 2.2 percent in 2003.

Parents' Most Important Reasons for Homeschooling Their Children
In the 2003 NHES, parents were asked whether particular reasons for homeschooling their children applied to them. Parents were then asked which one of those applicable reasons was their most important reason for homeschooling.

Thirty-one percent of homeschoolers had parents who said the most important reason for homeschooling was concern about the environment of other schools. Thirty percent said the most important reason was to provide religious or moral instruction. The next reason was given about half as often; 16 percent of homeschooled students had parents who said dissatisfaction with the academic instruction available at other schools was their most important reason for homeschooling.

Conclusion
From 1999 to 2003, the number of homeschooled students in the United States increased, as did the homeschooling rate. The increase in the homeschooling rate (from 1.7 percent to 2.2 percent) represents about 0.5 percent of the 2002-03 school-age population and a 29 percent relative increase over the 4-year period. While data from the NHES cannot explain why homeschooling was more prevalent in 2003 than in 1999, it can provide insight into why parents homeschooled their children in 2003. Nearly two-thirds of homeschooled students had parents who said that their primary reason for homeschooling was either concern about the environment of other schools or a desire to provide religious or moral instruction.

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