How many gifted children are there in the U.S.?
NAGC estimates that there are approximately 3 million academically gifted children in grades K-12 in the U.S – approximately 6% of the student population. No federal agency or organization collects these student statistics; the number is generated based on an estimate that dates back to the 1972 Marland Report to Congress, which estimated that 5-7% of school children are “capable of high performance” and in need of “services or activities not normally provided by the school.” Although we are not aware of national studies of the incidence of artistic talent in the student population, the number of gifted and talented students increases, depending on the number of categories of giftedness used in the estimate.
