Current NC School Diversity Statistics

From 1989 to 2021, North Carolina’s public school enrollment increased by over 41% and became increasingly diverse. In 2021, the state’s public school enrollment was 45% White, 25% Black, 20% Hispanic, 5% Multiracial, 4% Asian, and 1% American Indian.

Despite an increasingly diverse student body, patterns of segregation intensified as students of all racial groups were disproportionately enrolled in schools with same-race peers. In 2021, the typical White student attended a school where 58.9% of the students were White, even though White students only comprised 45% of the total state enrollment. The typical Black student attended a school where 41.2% of the students were Black, even though Black students accounted for 25% of the state’s enrollment. The typical Hispanic student attended a school where 28.7% of the students were Hispanic, even though Hispanic students accounted for only 20% of the state’s public school enrollment.

In the past three decades, the share of intensely segregated schools of color (schools that enroll 90-100% students of color) increased such that in 2021, 13.5% of the state’s public schools were intensely segregated schools of color. In 2021, 1 in 4 Black students and almost 1 in 5 Hispanic students across the state attended an intensely segregated school of color.

In 2021, within intensely segregated schools of color, 82.6% of the students were recipients of free or reduced-price lunch, indicating a double segregation of students by race and poverty. The typical Black and Hispanic students attended a school with disproportionately large shares of low-income students (61.3% and 55.3%, respectively) while the typical White and Asian students attended a school with disproportionately small shares of low-income students (38.0% and 29.4%, respectively).