Teacher demographic statistics: Key trends and insights for 2025

Over 4.2 million K-12 teachers are educating the next generation of Americans. But these numbers hide a problem: Nearly one in five teachers is nearing retirement age. 

It won’t be long before schools are understaffed, which will directly impact student learning, school performance, and the long-term sustainability of the U.S. education system. 

Are there enough teachers to meet demand? Are younger generations stepping up to fill the gap? And how do factors like gender, experience, and subject expertise influence the classroom?

In this article, we explore these questions using the most relevant teacher demographics from the U.S. We’ll look at the size and age of the teacher workforce, experience levels, gender representation, turnover, and what the next decade might hold for U.S. schools.

Let’s get started.

Key teacher demographic statistics (Top picks)

• The average age of a teacher is around 43, signaling a large retirement wave in the next decade.
• Teachers in the U.S. bring about 15 years of experience on average, with many spending nearly half of their careers in the same school.
• Roughly 8% of teachers leave their jobs each year, and nearly three-quarters considered leaving during the 2022/23 school year.
• The workforce is slowly shifting, but younger teachers remain underrepresented—just 14% are under 30, while a large share are mid-to-late career professionals.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics, Phi Delta Kappan

Table of contents

How many teachers are working in the U.S.?

• Over 4.2 million K-12 teachers were working in U.S. schools in 2021.
• 3.2 million teachers are working in public schools.
• 484,000 teachers are working in private schools. 
• 90% of public school teachers are full-time instructors, with around 10% working part-time.
• Roughly 50% of public school teachers taught at the elementary level and 50% at the secondary level.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

There are more teachers per student than a decade ago; however, many positions remain open — thanks to the high attrition rate of new and experienced teachers. The turnover is driven by teachers exploring alternate career paths post-pandemic and nearing retirement age.

What is the average age of teachers?

The age of teachers also plays a significant role in the high number of open roles in U.S. schools. 

• About 8% of public school teachers are 60 years old or older.
• Only about 14% of teachers are under 30 years of age.
• In public schools, the average teacher is just under 43 years old, 
• In private schools, the average age of teachers is around 45 years old.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

The average age of teachers is high for two reasons:

1. It’s more affordable for the schools to retain existing teachers than to hire new ones. 
2. And even if they do, they are struggling to retain teachers, making training and hiring a poor investment.

What is the average experience of teachers in the U.S.?

The data shows U.S. teachers have a lot of experience, but this can be a negative over time. The number of experienced teachers greatly outweighs the inexperienced. 

• About one in four teachers has two decades or more of classroom experience.
• Both public and private school teachers average about 15 years of teaching experience.
• Less than 10% of public school teachers had less than three years of experience, while 29% had three to nine years of experience.
• 37% of public school teachers have 10-20 years of experience.
• 26% of public school teachers have over 20 years of experience.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

How often do teachers quit their role?

• 10% of new teachers leave the profession within one year of work.
• About 9% of teachers with over 15 years of experience left teaching in the 2021 school year, compared to only 7% of teachers with less than three years of experience.
• On average, teachers also have around 8 years of tenure at their current school, indicating many spend roughly half their career at one school.
• Around three-fourths of surveyed teachers considered leaving their positions during the 2022-23 school year.

Sources: Education Resources Information Center, McKinsey, National Center for Education Statistics   

More than two-thirds of teachers leave the profession for reasons other than retirement. According to a study, the three most influential factors found were lack of administrative support, difficulties with student discipline, and low salary levels. You can learn more about teacher attrition rates in our teacher burnout statistics article. 

What is the gender demographic of teachers in the U.S.?

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) data shows there are more female teachers (77%) than male teachers (23%) overall. But this number varies when you filter by subjects, grade levels, and roles.

Female teachers are more prevalent in kindergarten, primary, and secondary grade levels. They commonly teach generalist subjects like Maths, Natural Science, etc. 

Meanwhile, male teachers are prominent in high school, teaching subjects like Social Sciences, Physical Education, and technical subjects. They are also known to take up leadership positions once they leave teaching — something less common among their female counterparts.

Let’s look at the data in more detail below.

Gender distribution by grade level

• In public schools, 89% of elementary school teachers are female and only 11% male. 
• In high school, teachers are ~60% female and 40% male.
• Around 72% of middle school teachers are female, while the remaining are male.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

Gender distribution by subject

Women account for a large portion of the workforce, especially in general education subjects in pre-K, elementary grades, middle grades, and special education.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

Gender distribution by role

• 60% of male teachers who left the classroom moved into a leadership role, while only 19% of female teachers did the same. 
• 57% of all K-12 school principals in the United States in the 2020-21 academic year were women.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics, American Institute for Boys and Men

What is the racial demographic of teachers in U.S. schools?

Studies show that students exposed to teachers of similar backgrounds perform better in school. However, there is an imbalance in the student-to-teacher ratio by race. White teachers are the majority in the U.S. schooling system, while Black teachers, Asian teachers, and Hispanic teachers make up the various ethnicities.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

NOTE: A small share of teachers are American Indian or Alaska Native, but we left them out of the chart because accurate figures were unavailable.

How much are teachers paid in the U.S.?

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the median wage of public school teachers ($63,160) is higher than the median wage of private school teachers ($51,260) for comparable roles. By grade level, special education and postsecondary teachers earn the most.

Sources: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

What are the educational qualifications of teachers in U.S. schools?

The NCES found that the number of public school teachers with a Bachelor’s degree has decreased by two percent between 2012 and 2022. 

During the same period, the number of teachers with Master’s degrees has increased, indicating public school students are getting access to more informed teachers.

The difference in educational qualifications of teachers across different regions isn't significant enough to impact the quality of education. 

• In rural areas, 46% of teachers held a Master’s degree, while 8% held a degree higher than a Master’s degree.
• In cities, 52% of teachers held a Master’s degree while 10% held a degree higher than a Master’s degree.
• In suburban areas, 55% of teachers held a Master’s degree, while 11% held a degree higher than a Master’s degree.

But when you look at the difference between public and private schools, more public school teachers (61%) have Master’s degrees or higher than private school teachers (49.8%) in comparable roles.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

What is the future of the U.S. teacher workforce?

• Nearly one-fifth of the workforce is over the age of 55, which means almost 700,000+ teachers are expected to retire by 2030.
• With ~14% of teachers under 30, the influx of Gen Z teachers is gradually growing, but still a small minority of the workforce.
• The growth of racial diversity among the teacher workforce is slower than among college-educated adults.

Sources: National Center for Education Statistics

The statistics share a story of difficulties and hope…

These teacher statistics reveal the U.S. education system faces both imminent retirements and persistent attrition, leading to a highly experienced teaching workforce that is increasingly stretched thin. 

Add to this the gender imbalance — where women dominate elementary roles while men cluster in secondary and leadership positions — and it’s clear that the teaching profession is under both demographic and cultural strain.

But the data also highlights opportunities. Schools can build a more sustainable workforce by creating pathways for younger teachers, addressing salary and workload concerns, and addressing demographic imbalances.

What this means for school districts, education leaders, and policymakers is that it’s time to:

✔ Strengthen recruitment pipelines to attract Gen Z teachers, who currently make up only ~14% of the workforce.
✔ Prepare robust succession and mentoring plans to manage the retirement wave of 700,000+ veteran teachers by 2030.
✔ Improve retention by tackling the top three drivers of exits: administrative support, student behaviour challenges, and low pay.

The statistics make one thing clear: without investment in teacher recruitment, retention, and support, the U.S. risks an education system unable to meet the needs of the next generation.