The Catholic Northwest Progress newspaper reports that total enrollment at the 73 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Seattle for the 2011–2012 school year is 22,754, down 0.6 percent from last year. Elementary school enrollment dropped just 0.3 percent, while enrollment at the archdiocese’s 11 Catholic high schools declined by 1.2 percent. But enrollment in Eastside schools has grown.

In his story, reporter Kevin Birnbaum, says that after a spike in growth four years ago, enrollment for the most part has leveled off. Since 2008, total Catholic school enrollment in the archdiocese has declined 2.4 percent.

The archdiocese’s 62 elementary schools have a total enrollment of 16,666 this year, down 2.6 percent since 2008.

Total high school enrollment, at 6,088, is down 1.9 percent from 2008, before Seton Catholic and down 3.7 percent from 2007.

Enrollment in the geographic deaneries is a mixed bag of gains and losses; the Eastside Deanery increased enrollment by 3.8 percent over last year, while the Pierce Deanery saw a drop-off of 4.1 percent.

Racial diversity increased slightly, with whites accounting for 64.7 percent of all students, down from  69.9 percent in 2008. Hispanic enrollment has continued to grow to 1,492, an increase of 221 students since 2007.

The number of non-Catholic students increased by 332 since last year, to 5,052; non-Catholics represent 22.2 percent of all students.

For the entire story, go to www.seattlearchdiocese.org/progress/ProgressFour.aspx.