School Enrolment in Canada, Part 3: Homeschooling on the rise in every province
This is the third in a three-part series examining the current nature of school enrolment in Canada as well as recent trends. This blog post focuses on homeschooling (K-12) across the country.
Even before a large number of Canadian families found themselves in some form of homeschooling during COVID, homeschooling was on the rise. Simply put, an increasing proportion of Canadian parents and students are choosing to homeschool rather than opting for their local public schools.
The table below summarizes homeschool enrolment for 2006-07 and 2018-19, the most recent year of available comparable data. (The chart below illustrates the same data.)
| Total Enrolment | % Change | % of Total Enrolment | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006-07 | 2018-19 | (2006-07 to 2018-19) | 2006-07 | 2018-19 | |
| Canada | 18360 | 37458 | 104.0% | 0.3% | 0.7% |
| NL | 0 | 147 | 0.0% | 0.2% | |
| PEI | 45 | 171 | 280.0% | 0.2% | 0.8% |
| NS | 663 | 1263 | 90.5% | 0.5% | 1.0% |
| NB | 513 | 834 | 62.6% | 0.5% | 0.8% |
| QC | 147 | 4149 | 2722.4% | 0.0% | 0.3% |
| ON | 3582 | 8565 | 139.1% | 0.2% | 0.4% |
| MB | 1176 | 3708 | 215.3% | 0.6% | 1.8% |
| SK | 1212 | 2625 | 116.6% | 0.7% | 1.4% |
| AB | 9984 | 13689 | 37.1% | 1.7% | 1.9% |
| BC | 1038 | 2307 | 122.3% | 0.2% | 0.4% |
Homeschooling enrolment (as a percentage of total student enrolment) increased in every province and in Canada as a whole from 2006-07 to 2018-19. During this time period, the share of Canadian parents choosing to homeschool their children more than doubled, from 0.3 per cent in 2006-07 to 0.7 per cent in 2018-19, though it still reflects a small share of total student enrolment.
In total, six out of nine provinces (British Columbia, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, Quebec and Prince Edward Island) more than doubled their share of homeschool enrolment from 2006-07 to 2018-19. (Data for Newfoundland and Labrador was limited so the province was excluded from this analysis.)
Homeschooling enrolment is highest in Alberta (1.9 per cent of total students in 2018-19) followed by Manitoba (1.8 per cent) and Saskatchewan (1.4 per cent). Enrolment in these three provinces is at least double the national weighted average of 0.7 per cent of total students.
Only three provinces—B.C., Alberta and Saskatchewan—offer government funding for homeschooling.
It’s clear that an increasing number of Canadian families, though still a small share of total enrolment, have a strong interest in homeschooling. The trends in homeschool enrolment are consistent with the decreasing enrolment in public schools across Canada over the same period, which was explored in Part 1 of this blog series and the increasing enrolment in independent schools, which was explored in Part 2 of this series.
Read Part 1: Fewer Canadian parents choosing public schools
Read Part 2: More Canadian parents choosing independent schools