Southern Illinois News

Pope County schools welcomed 475 students in the 2022-23 school year, according to the Illinois State Board of Education.

This is an increase of 1.7% over the previous school year, when there were 467 students enrolled in the county.

Pope County had the lowest enrollment numbers in the state.

Of all the students welcomed at the time, 50.1% identified as female, and 49.9% as male.

Most of the students enrolled in the county were white, representing 94.5% of its student body.

Within Pope County, Pope County Elementary School had the highest enrollment in the school year, welcoming 317 students.

In 2022, Illinois had almost 2 million students enrolled in nearly 4,000 schools. There was roughly one teacher for every 15 students, slightly better than the national average of 1:16.

K-12 enrollment has been declining in Illinois for many years, reflecting the state's demographic changes. Combined public and private K-12 enrollment dropped 3% between the 2019–20 and 2020–21 school years (60,900 students), far more than the typical 0.5% to 1.5% annual enrollment declines in Illinois over the last five years.

School	City	Enrollment
Pope County Elementary School	Golconda	317
Pope County High School	Golconda	158