Elementary-secondary education: Finances, students and educators, 2022/2023

In 2022/2023, 5.8 million students were enrolled in Canadian elementary and secondary school programs, with the vast majority attending public schools (91.3%). However, the share of students in private schools (7.7%) increased for the second consecutive year, while the proportion of homeschooled students (0.9%) continued to decline, approaching levels observed before the COVID-19 pandemic.

While the total number of student enrolments increased by 1.7% in 2022/2023, expenditures for Canadian elementary and secondary education (+2.6%) rose at a faster pace, reaching $95.9 billion. Provincial and territorial governments remained the main source of funding for elementary and secondary education, contributing $72.5 billion, or 73.3% of the total funding.

Public school enrolments reach a two-decade high

Public school enrolments for elementary and secondary education increased by 1.9% to 5.3 million in 2022/2023, reaching the highest level of enrolments since 2002/2003. The increase in 2022/2023 coincided with the largest total population aged 4 to 17 years since 1977, according to Statistics Canada population estimates.

At the provincial and territorial level, the largest increases in public school enrolments in 2022/2023 were in New Brunswick (+3.7%) and Alberta (+3.3%). Both provinces experienced high population growth in net non-permanent residents in 2022/2023 as well as significant increases in interprovincial migration.

Shares of enrolments in French immersion and minority official language programs continue to decline

In 2022/2023, enrolments in French immersion programs as a share of total enrolments fell to 11.7%, down from a peak of 12.3% in 2020/2021. This marked the end of a 21-year-long upward trend. In 2022/2023, declines were observed in all provinces and territories that provide data on French immersion programs, except Yukon, where enrolments increased from 15.5% to 16.2%. These programs are primarily designed for students who want to develop a proficiency in French as a second language.

Minority official language programs, distinct from immersion programs, aim to allow children in the official language minority to pursue their education in their language. The share of these enrolments in Canada outside of Quebec also declined; it edged down from a peak of 4.4% in 2020/2021 to 4.3% in 2022/2023.

In Quebec, although the number of enrolments in minority official language programs increased in 2022/2023 to just under 85,000, the proportion of these enrolments compared with the overall school population was 8.5%, an all-time low.

Since the height of the pandemic, many provinces and territories have reported having educator shortages for minority-language programs and have begun to introduce new recruitment and retention programs to mitigate these challenges.

Public schools allocate record amount of spending to capital projects

In 2022/2023, growth in total expenditures made by public elementary and secondary schools rose to $79.0 billion, an increase of 2.8% from the previous year. During this period, public school spending on capital projects increased by 13.1% to $8.6 billion. This represents the largest capital outlay in a single year as well as the largest share of total expenditures dedicated to capital projects (10.8%) in the 62-year time series.

Record single-year spending on capital projects in 2022/2023 in Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba drove this trend at the provincial and territorial level. Initiatives such as the 2021-2031 Quebec Infrastructure Plan, Ontario Builds and the Manitoba Schools Project, among others, have been launched in recent years to modernize and expand school spaces and facilities.