How Many Teachers In The US (2024 Data)

Teacher is the most important aspect of everyone’s life. Being a teacher is a very rewarding career in the US.

You might have a question like, How many teachers in the US? In this case, statistics can help you to acknowledge the details and trends of the school teachers in the US.

In this article, I have jotted down the various statistics that define the number of teachers in the US, primary and secondary school teachers in the US, and various statistics about gender, age, race, salary, education, and the employment rate of the teachers in the US.

So without wasting time, let’s get started with the top statistics of teachers in the US.

How Many Teachers In The US In 2024 — Top Statistics

1. There are currently more than 3.8 million teachers employed in the US.
2. According to the Occupational Employment Survey, there are more than 2.3 million teachers that are working at the elementary and middle school level.
3. According to the US BLS, the majority of teachers are female.
4. Overall, 74.3% are female teachers, and 25.7% are male teachers.
5. The average student teacher ratio is 14:3.
6. According to the data from Zippa.com, the average public school teacher’s salary iss $65,090.
7. The avverage salary of the elementary school teacher was noted around $65,420, while the average salary of the high school teacher was around $67,340.
8. The average age of employed teachers is 43 years old.
9. New York has the most demand for teachers.
10. The most common race of teachers is white (72.3%) followed by Hispanic (12.0%) or Latino, Black (10.1%), African American, and Asian (3.4%).
11. It is observed that Maryland is the best state for teachers to live in.
12. The average student-teacher ratio in 2021 is 15.4 overall, of which 16.0 at public schools and 11.9 at private schools.
13. By 2030, it is estimated that there will be more than 454,000 private elementary and secondary teachers and 3.04 million public school teachers.

Number of Teachers In Public and Private Schools

14. Statistics show that the total number of teachers in the US for 2021 was 3,684,000. Of these, 3,187,000 were public school teachers, and 478 were private school teachers.
15. The student-teacher ratio allows 15:3 which combines approximately 15:3 for public schools and 11:7 for private schools.
16. According to Statista, it is estimated that there will be around 3,513,000 teachers in the US by 2029. Out of these, 3,057,000 teachers will be from public schools and 456,000 teachers at private schools.
17. This will allow an overall student-teacher ratio of 14:5. That means 15:1 at the public schools and 11:1 at the private schools.
18. In 2019-2020, there were a total of 476,000 teachers in private elementary and secondary schools in the US.
19. It is estimated that there will be around 456,000 teachers in private elementary and secondary schools in the US by 2029.
20. Accordding to the Statista.com, by 2030, there will be approx 3,044,000 public school teachers and 454,000 private school teacher in the US.

Let’s have a detailed look at the estimated trend in the number of teachers in public and private elementary and secondary schools since 2020 to 2030.

Year	Public school teachers	Private school teachers
2020	3,171,000	476,000
2021	3,186,000	478,000
2022	3,158,000	473,000
2023	3,152,000	472,000
2024	3,146,000	471,000
2025	3,139,000	470,000
2026	3,111,000	465,000
2027	3,086,000	461,000
2028	3,074,000	459,000
2029	3,057,000	456,000
2030	3,044,000	454,000

21. This will allow the student-teacher ratio of 11:1 students per teacher.
22. The student-teacher ratio for private schools in the United States in in 2019 was 11.4.
23.  While for the public schools, the student teacher ratio was 15.9. (2019)
24. It is estimated that by 2030, the teacher student ratio for private schools will decrease by 10.6 and for public schools it will decrease by 15.5.

Let’s have a look at the Student-Teacher ratio in public and private elementary and secondary schools in the United States from 2020 to 2023.

Year	Public school Student teacher ratio	Private school student teacher ratio
2020	15.6	12.6
2021	15.7	12.3
2022	15.8	12.2
2023	15.8	12
2024	15.7	11.7
2025	15.6	11.5
2026	15.5	11.1
2027	15.5	11
2028	15.5	10.9
2029	15.5	10.7
2030	15.5	10.6

Primary School Teachers:

25. As of 2020, there are 1,569,00 elementary and primary school teachers in the US. That means it accounts for 43.6% of all teachers.
26. According to the BLS, 97.8% of the teachers of primary schools are women.
27. The average salary earned by a primary school teacher is around $46,041.
28. The median education level of the teacher in primary schools is a bachelor’s degree. Teachers need to submit a license or state-issued certificate in order to teach in public elementary schools.

Secondary School Teachers: 

29. According to Admission, there are 615,700 teachers in secondary schools. This counts for 17% (approx) of all the teachers in the US.
30. Of the total number of public secondary school teachers, 54.9% of them are females.
31. The median salary offered to secondary school teachers is around $45,444 and the average level of degree is a bachelor’s degree.

High School Teachers:

32. As of 2020, there are approximately 1,072,500 high school teachers in the US. It combines about 29.8% of all the teachers in the US.
33. The average salary earned by high school teachers is around $49,290 annually. The median qualification of a high school teacher is a bachelor’s degree. 
34. Out of the total number of high school teachers 49.2% represents female teachers.
35. There is a 26% increase seen in public high school teachers from 2000 to 2020.
36. High school teachers need to submit state authorization documents that will allow them to teach legally.

Regional Statistics

37. According to the US literacy statistics, there is a 1.3% increase in public school teachers each year in states like Texas and California.
38. In 2020, the number of teachers in public schools was highest in the state of Texas, with more than 363,195 teachers.
39. The second highest number of public school teachers in 2020 were in the state of California, with approximately 293,619 teachers.
40. Similarly, the least number of teachers in public schools in the year 2020 was in Columbia.
41. The greatest decrease in the number of teachers was seen in Alaska in between the years 2019 to 2020. There was a 2.79% decrease of public school teachers in Alaska.
42. Utah had the highest student-teacher ratio, with 22.7 students enrolled per teacher.

Top 10 States with the highest number of Teachers in Public schools: 2021.

Sr. No	State	Teachers	Student Enrollment	Student-Teacher ratio
1.	Texas	364,478	5,372,806	14.5
2.	California	271,805	6,064,504	22.5
3.	New York	217,398	2,606,748	12.2
4.	Florida	166,002	2,791,707	17.3
5.	Pennsylvania	124,294	1,704,396	13.6
6.	Geogia	117,837	1,730,015	14.7
7.	New Jersey	117,060	1,373,960	11.8
8.	Ohio	105,998	1,645,412	16.3
9.	North Carolina	100,777	1,513,677	15.0
10.	Virginia	87,147	1,251,639	14.4

Teacher Statistics by Gender

43. Among the total count of teachers in the US, 74.3% are female teachers, and 25.7% are male teachers.
44. Female teachers earn 95 cents for each $1 earned by men. That means women teachers are paid approximately $53,011 while $55,902 is the approx salary of male teachers.
45. There are LGBT 9.52% of teachers in US public and private schools. There are also some seats reserved for LGBT teachers in various schools.

Teacher Statistics by Race and Ethnicity

White is the most frequent ethnicity among teachers, representing 68.8% of all teachers. In comparison, 12.9% of the population is Hispanic or Latino, and 10.1% is Black or African American.

Teacher Race Ratio:

Race	Percentage
White	68.8%
Latino or Hispanic	12.9%
Black and African American	3.9%
Asian	3.7%
American Indian and Alaska Native	0.6%

46. It is observed that schools with more ethnic/racial diversity in their student population tend to have more ethnic diversity in their teacher demographics.
47. In 2003-04 and 2015-16, the majority of public elementary and secondary school teachers were White.
48. Schools with 90 percent or more minority students had the highest number of minority teachers (55%), followed by those with 75 to 89 percent minority students (31%) and those with 50 to 74 percent minority students (20%).
49. Schools with 24 to 49 percent minority students had the lowest percentage of minority teachers (4%), and those with fewer than 10 percent minority students had the highest percentage (2 percent).
50. On the other hand, White teachers accounted for 98 percent of teachers in schools with less than 10% minority students but just 45 % of staff in schools with 90% or more minority students.
51. Location is also a factor that affects the distribution of teachers by their race. It is seen that there were more minority teachers in city schools (31%) than in suburban (18%), town (12%), or rural schools (11%).
52. Similarly, the percentage of white teachers in the towns (88%) and suburban areas (89%) was higher than in city schools (69%).
53. According to a 2016-17 survey, the percentage of Black (12%) and Hispanic (13%) teachers with a level of experience was higher than that of white teachers (9%).

Here is a Percentage of the distribution of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools by race and highest degree earned. (2016-17)

Race and degree	Less than bachelor’s	Bachelor’s Degree	Master’s Degree	Education Specialist	Doctor’s degree
White	3%	40%	48%	8%	1%
Black	2%	37%	45%	14%	2%
Hispanic	2%	51%	39%	7%	1%
Asian	2%	35%	50%	11%	1% approx
Pacific Islander	1%	45%	43%	10% approx	0.80% approx
American Indian and Alaska Native	7% approx	44%	40%	8% approx	0.75% approx
Two or more races	2% approx	42%	46%	7%	2% approx

Teacher Statistics by Age

54. It is observed that the average age of all the teachers in the US in 2018 was 42.6
55. According to the national teacher and principal survey of 2018, the average age of all public schools was 42.4.
56. Similarly, the average of private school teachers was 44.3. Below is the detailed average age of teachers and the percentage of teachers by age.

Age Category	Public schools (in %)	Private schools (in %)
Less than 30 years	15.0%	16.2%
30 to 49 years	56.9%	47.1%
50 to 54 years	11.6%	11.3%
55 to 64 years	14.5%	18.2%
65 years and above	2.0%	7.2%

57. Also, according to the survey, it is observed that most of the American Indian and Alaska Native teachers have the highest average age.

Here is a detailed ratio of average teacher age by race and gender.

Race	Male Teacher Age	Female Teacher Age
Black or African American	42	44
White	43	43
American Indian and Alaska Native	40.5	45
Hispanic or Latino	41	41
Asian	38	42
Unknown	36	39

Salary Statistics of the Teachers in the US

58. On average, public school teachers earn between about 25 to 119% higher than private school teachers.
59. The statistics say Male public school teachers who are White and Hispanic (10-13%) earn more than their female counterparts teachers.
60. Married female teachers get paid lower salaries than unmarried female teachers. For male teachers, there is no difference depending on marital status.
61. Only male public school teachers were found to differ in terms of race and ethnicity. 
62. On average, the salary earned by secondary teachers is higher than primary school teachers. In the public school sector, this counts 3.4% for female teachers and 6.3% for male teachers. In the private sector, it is 13.1% for female teachers and 14.8% for male teachers.
63. As per the data from 2020-21, the average salary of public school teachers in the US was $65,090 per year.

Let’s have a look at the average salary of classroom teachers in the public schoos in the US from 2010-2020.

(Source: Statista)

Year	Average Salary
2009-10	$55,370
2011-12	$56,062
2013-14	$57,007
2015-16	$58,506
2017-18	$60,785
2019-20	$64,133
2021-22	$65,090

64. In the public sector, the yearly pay increment for an extra year of experience is 2.12%, 0.86 percent for an extra year of education experience, and 0.17 % for an increased year of age.
65. Teachers in public and private schools with advanced degrees earn more money.
66. Larger relative class sizes for individual teachers are also associated with higher salaries. 
67. When it comes to salaries, the subject of specialization is also important. Teachers in public schools who specialize in business, mathematics, or vocational education appear to earn higher teacher salaries.
68. Salary increases for mathematics are 2.37 %, 1.63 % for business studies, and 3.02 % for vocational training. In the private sector, this pattern appears to be less prevalent.

Here is an average basic salary range of teachers in public elementary and secondary schools by years of experience. (2018)

Years of Teaching experience	Salary Earned (approx)
1 year or less	$42,800
2 to 4 years	$46,400
5 to 9 years	$49,800
10 to 14 years	$57,200
15 to 19 years	$64,500
20 to 24 years	$68,000
25 to 29 years	$69,300
30 or more years	$70,500

Average Salary of Public School Teachers in the US by State (2020-21)

69. The average estimated salary of a public school teacher was highest in the state of New York, with around 87,738 US dollar in 2020-21.
70. In the year 2021, the national average salary for a public school teacher was around $65,090.

Let’s have a deeper look at the average salary of public school teachers in the United States in 2020-21 by top 10 States.-

(Source: Statista)

Rank	State	Average Salary
1.	New York	$87,738
2.	Massachusetts	$86,315
3.	California	$85,892
4.	District of Columbia	$80,659
5.	Connecticut	$79,742
6.	Washington	$79,529
7.	New Jersey	$77,489
8.	Rhode Island	$75,966
9.	Maryland	$74,514
10.	Alaska	$72,861

Teachers by Education and Qualification

71. For public schools, the percentage of teachers who had post-graduate degrees was 58% for primary and secondary schools.
72. Secondary school teachers help with postgraduate degrees more than elementary school teachers.
73. In 2017-18, 90% of teachers in public schools owned a regular or standard state teaching certificate or a professional training certificate.
74. 4% of teaching staff have temporary or provisional certificates, while 3% have supervised probation certificates.
75. 2% owned no certification, while 1% had a waiver or emergency certificate.
76. In 2017-18, approximately 9% of public school teachers had less than three years of professional experience.
77. 3 to 9 years of experience made up 28% of the total, 10 to 20 years made up 40%, and over 20 years made up 23%.

Teacher Employment and Industry Statistics

78. According to the USN statistics, the percentage of teachers working in the education industry (73%) was higher than those working in public (4%), private (17%), or government (5%) industries. 
79. Also, based on the number of teachers in various industries, the education industry (79%) hires more teachers than any other industries like, government (4%), nonprofits (4%), and health care (2%).

Let’s have a look at the detailed data on teacher jobs by sector.

Company Type	Percentages
Education	82%
Public	2%
Private	11%
Government	6%

80. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate has decreased from 2010 to 2019. In 2010 the unemployment rate was 2.82%, and in 2019 the unemployment rate was 1.62%.
81. It is also observed that average teachers stay at their job for 1 to 2 years with a percentage of 33%.

Following is the detiled chart of the average size of companies that typically hire teachers.

(Source: Zippa.com)

Company Size	Percentage
< 50 employees	9%
50 – 100 employees	28%
100 – 500 employees	25%
500 – 1,000 employees	7%
1,000 – 10,000 employees	25%
> 10,000 employees	7%

Related Read:

• Best Dental Schools In The US
• Best Engineering Schools In The US For
• Public Universities In The USA
• How Many Schools In The US

Conclusion: There Are 3.8 Million Teachers in The US

Well, that’s all about how many teachers there are in the US!

There are various opportunities available in this career. It is estimated that demand for teachers in the US will increase by 16% by the year 2029.

I hope this article gave you a complete idea of teachers in the US and the various trends and facts in this career.  

Share your thoughts in the comment section below.