Entering New Markets: Growing Potential with the Homeschool Audience

The changing demographics of the growing homeschool market are catching the attention of many businesses outside of the education industry. As home education becomes a mainstream option, the companies that serve them are experiencing notable growth, and many other companies are seeing the opportunity to enter a new market to reach parents with various products and services. 

The growing demand for homeschooling resources and curriculum has definitely opened up the market to new businesses and encouraged those already active in the home-education field to ramp up operations. 

Families opt to homeschool for numerous reasons, such as their children’s lack of progress in traditional schooling; the difference in religious and educational philosophies; or the lack of satisfaction with traditional educational methods, expectations, and environments.

The industry has seen a big influx of new consumers since 2020. Parents have chosen to educate their own children in response to restrictions imposed on students in schools and concerns about safety. Many parents thought they would just keep their children home until these additional concerns were no longer an issue, but they have now discovered that home education works better for their kids and family life and plan to continue, despite changes in the institutional systems.  

While the homeschool market has had constant growth over the last forty years or more, there was a significant jump from 2019 to 2021. Through lockdown experiences, where children enrolled in public schools were doing public schooling online, frustrated parents came to realize that they could find better-suited curriculum and resources to educate their children. 

In a September 2021 research report titled, How Many Homeschool Students Are There in the United States? Pre-Covid-19 and Post-Covid-19: New Data from the National Home Education Research Institute (NHERI), Dr. Brian Ray analyzes data from the United States Census Bureau to conclude that “there were an estimated 3.721 million school-age (K–12) homeschool students in the United States during the 2020–2021 school year.

Image from NHERI

Here are a few quick facts from NHERI to give you an overview of the marketing potential:

• Families engaged in home-based education are not dependent on public, tax-funded resources for their children’s education. The finances associated with their homeschooling likely represent over $27 billion.
• The homeschool population is continuing to grow (at an estimated 2% to 8% per annum over the past few years).
• Homeschooling—that is, parent-led home-based education; home education—is an age-old traditional educational practice that a decade ago appeared to be cutting-edge and “alternative” but is now bordering on “mainstream” in the United States. It may be the fastest-growing form of education in the United States.

You’ll find additional homeschool facts and discover much more about the demographics of home educators at NHERI.

This growing group of consumers is NOT a small piece of the pie. The homeschooling movement is more widespread than ever and has shown substantial growth year after year. It is growing in popularity as parents are realizing how much better their children’s education is when they can meet their individual needs. This is something that was true before the pandemic and will continue to be true afterwards. Now, more and more parents are being exposed to that through experiencing it and hearing from the growing number of new homeschoolers.

If parents are part of your customer profile and you are looking to enter new markets, then you will benefit from building your name with the homeschooling audience. We have various specialized solutions to help you reach the best segment of the homeschooling market for your business. Let us know how we can serve you.