How many teachers are there in the USA?

Teachers total 2.5% of the entire US workforce
There are 4,007,908 teachers in the USA
For every male teacher, there are about 3.17 female teachers
Black Americans comprise 7% of teachers in all public schools but 36% of teachers for majority-Black student bodies
Almost 1 in 5 teachers are 55 years old or older

By grade level

There are 4,007,908 teachers in the USA
More than half of all teachers are elementary school teachers
Just under a quarter of all teachers are high school teachers
A small percentage of schools cover kindergarten, all the way through to 12th grade – teachers at these schools make up 12%

Grade	No. of teachers	%
K-12 combined schools	291,724	7.3%
Elementary school	2,006,810	50.1%
Middle school and junior high	641,485	16.0%
High school	992,386	24.8%
Other	75,503	1.9%
Total	4,007,908	100.0%

There are 75 thousand teachers in non-traditional teaching roles in schools and institutions across the country
There are 39,311 special education teachers that work with students who have learning, mental, emotional, or physical disabilities
There are slightly more than 30,000 career and technical education teachers who teach vocational subjects such as auto repair, cosmetology, and culinary arts
There are also almost 5,000 adult education teachers who teach English as a second language or prepare adults for the GED – similar to a high school diploma

School	Male	Female
Pre-K and Kindergarten	2.3%	97.7%
Elementary and middle school	18.3%	81.7%
High school	42.0%	58.0%

68.85% of teachers in the USA are white
Black Americans comprise 7% of teachers in all public schools but 36% of teachers for majority-Black student bodies
Hispanic Americans make up 9% of all public school teachers but 33% of teachers for majority-Hispanic student bodies
Asian teachers make up 2% of all public school teachers but 27% of those in majority-Asian schools
In 2013, the number of Hispanic teachers overtook the number of Black teachers for the first time

Around 57% of all teachers have a postgraduate degree — but it is most common in districts where few children are low-income enough to qualify for free or reduced-price lunches
Public schools where less than a third of children qualify for free or reduced-price lunch report that 63% of teachers have a master’s degree or higher
Public schools where half or more of the students are on free or reduced-price lunch report that 55% of teachers have the same qualifications.

Of these, 1,141,000 were public school teachers
The same year, 145,000 of these teachers were private school teachers
By 1995, there were 2,974,000 teachers – 2,598,000 public school teachers and 376,000 private school teachers

In Utah, there are more than double the number of students for every teacher than there are in Vermont
Despite being one of the most populous states, New York has the 6th lowest student-to-teacher ratio
Other populous states like California, Florida and Texas come in 50th, 48th, and 27th respectively