Continuing expansion of K-12 international school sector driven more by growing local demand
- There are now more than 15,000 international schools operating across various regions
- About a quarter of them are located in five countries: China, India, UAE, Pakistan, and Indonesia
- Asia accounts for more than half of the total
- More and more schools offer education that is localised (e.g., language, culture) as well as global (e.g., internationally recognised curricula such as IB, Cambridge)
The international K-12 segment continues to expand steadily; this is now a six-year pattern. A new white paper from ISC Research reports a +2% year-over-year increase in 2026 to 15,075 schools spread across the world. These schools collectively generate US$69.3 billion in annual fee income, enrol 7.7 million students, and employ 730,000 staff.
More than half of schools (58%) are in Asia, with the remainder spread across the Americas (15%), Europe (14%), Africa (12%), and Oceania (2%).
While China still leads in terms of number of schools, growth is flattening. By contrast, the number of schools grew by +2% in India and +7% in UAE. The ISC report singles out UAE, Indonesia, and Kazakhstan as high-growth markets, noting that the UAE leads in the number of K-12 international schools it has planned for the future (36). There are currently waiting lists for multiple grade levels in UAE.
Other pertinent statistics are that there are +34% more accredited schools and +17% more that offer bilingual education.
Structural shift
ISC says that growth in international schools is now driven by local demand. This is a shift – previously it had been a country’s expatriate community that created demand for these schools. The shift has stimulated the rise in schools offering bilingual provision and curricula reflecting “national requirements, local language, and cultural context.” Over a third of international schools now offer bilingual instruction and 78% follow a hybrid model that blends local needs with global outcomes.
ISC says: “International schools are no longer positioned at the margins of national education systems they are increasingly integrated within them.”
As for new entrants into the segment, ISC says the most successful are those “who can operate locally and expand globally.”
For additional background, please see:
- “International schools segment registers impressive five-year growth numbers”
- “ICEF Podcast: Shifting horizons: Global trends in international secondary education”
- “A big-picture view of international student mobility for secondary studies”
- “International schools an increasingly important recruitment channel for higher education”
