Alberta has about 2,500–2,600 K–12 schools in total, including public, separate (Catholic), francophone, private, charter, and other K–12 institutions.

Key number (most recent compiled figure)

  • A recent national K–12 e‑learning and schooling survey lists:
    • Number of K–12 schools in Alberta: 2,518.
* **Number of K–12 students: 766,280**.

This is one of the few up‑to‑date, province‑wide counts published in a single place, and it is widely referenced in education statistics discussions.

What “how many schools” includes

When people ask “how many schools in Alberta,” they are usually talking about all K–12 schools , not just one system. That broader total typically includes:

  • Public school division schools (English).
  • Separate/Catholic schools.
  • Francophone schools.
  • Publicly funded charter schools.
  • Accredited private schools.
  • Some specialty K–12 and distance‑learning schools.

Different sources sometimes count only publicly funded bricks‑and‑mortar schools, while others add online and distance‑learning programs, so you may see slightly different totals.

Recent growth and context

Alberta’s school system has been under pressure from rapid population growth , and the province has committed multi‑billion‑dollar funding to build or modernize more than 100 schools and add roughly 150,000–200,000 new student spaces over several years. Because of this:

  • The number of schools is gradually increasing as new buildings open and existing ones are expanded or replaced.
  • Class sizes and crowding remain a major topic in public and forum discussions, which is part of why current counts of schools and spaces matter so much.

So, if you are writing or posting about this, the best current single figure you can use is: “Alberta has roughly 2,500 K–12 schools (about 2,518 in the latest compiled data).”

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.