How many private schools and kindergartens are in Saudi Arabia?
Kindergartens, primary and secondary schools, national and international curricula.
6,974
active registrations list private schools & kindergartens activities — 0.5% of classified registrations.
Ministry of Commerce data · Q3 2026 to 16 Sep
6,974 active commercial registrations in Saudi Arabia list private schools & kindergartens activities as of 16 September 2026 — 0.5% of all classified registrations, the 62nd-largest of the 64 sectors we track.
1,511 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +28.8% on 2024, faster than the +15% across all sectors.
Riyadh (2,674), Jeddah (962) and Makkah (402) lead. Relative to its size, Buraydah is the most concentrated: private schools and kindergartens make up 1.4× the share they hold nationally.
66% of these registrations are companies rather than sole proprietorships, and the median company reports SAR 100,000 of paid-up capital.
- Active registrations
- 6,974
- 0.5% of classified CRs
- Registered in 2025
- 1,511
- +28.8% on 2024 · all sectors +15%
- Companies
- 66%
- 4,602 of 6,974
- Median company capital
- SAR 100k
- Paid-up, main registrations
Where private schools and kindergartens are registered
Column height: private schools and kindergartens by city · select a highlighted city for its page
Leading cities
Registrations, with concentration vs the national average
- Riyadh2,6741.3×
- Jeddah9621.3×
- Makkah4021.2×
- Dammam3541.1×
- Madinah3321.2×
- Buraydah2351.4×
- Khobar1931.3×
- Taif1140.8×
- Tabuk1050.9×
- Hail900.8×
Concentration compares the sector's share of a city's registrations with its share nationally; 1.0× is average. Highlighted cities are above 1.15×.
Private schools & kindergartens: registrations by year of creation
Still-active registrations by the year they were created, 2015–2025. Older years read lower because cancelled registrations drop out.
Most common activities
Registrations listing each national activity code
- Kindergartens (national curriculum)1,255Activity code 851010
- Boys' primary schools (international curriculum)441Activity code 851025
- Girls' intermediate schools (national curriculum)342Activity code 852115
- Girls' primary schools (national curriculum)308Activity code 851022
- Independent kindergartens (national curriculum)303Activity code 851011
- Kindergartens (international curriculum)282Activity code 851012
- Boys' intermediate schools (national curriculum)267Activity code 852114
- Girls' secondary schools (national curriculum)244Activity code 852112
Business structures
Legal form of registrations in the sector
- LLC4,33962.2%
- Sole proprietorship2,36633.9%
- JSC2193.1%
- SJSC330.5%
- General partnership70.1%
- Foreign branch60.1%
- Limited partnership40.1%
Common questions
How many private schools and kindergartens are there in Saudi Arabia?
6,974 active commercial registrations list private schools & kindergartens activities as of 16 September 2026, according to Ministry of Commerce data. A registration can list several activities, so it may also count in related sectors.
Which city has the most private schools and kindergartens?
Riyadh, with 2,674 — 38.3% of the national total. Jeddah follows with 962.
Is the number of private schools and kindergartens growing?
1,511 were registered in 2025 and are still active — +28.8% on 2024, faster than the +15% across all sectors.
Can a foreign investor set up in private schools & kindergartens in Saudi Arabia?
Most activities are open to 100% foreign ownership with a MISA investment licence, though some carry conditions such as minimum capital, a Saudi partner or sector-regulator approval. Alpha Consultancy confirms the conditions for your exact activity code before you apply.
Figures are Alpha Consultancy's analysis of the Ministry of Commerce's open datasets on the Saudi Open Data Platform (open.data.gov.sa): the register of active commercial registrations (CRs) as of 16 September 2026.
Active CRsinclude main and branch registrations, as in the Ministry's own totals. Registered in a period counts CRs created in that period that were still active on 16 September 2026; registrations since cancelled are not in the source file, so older periods read lower than the number originally issued.
Partial quarter. The Ministry's Q3 2026 file is labelled as the quarter end but only contains registrations created up to 16 September 2026, so every figure here is as of that date and the latest quarter in the charts (marked *) is incomplete.
Sector figures cover the 1,443,322 active registrations (74.7%) that appear in the Ministry of Commerce's activity association file, which lists activities for registrations created up to 31 December 2025. Registrations created after that date are not yet classified. A registration counts once in each sector it is active in, so sectors overlap.
No individual business is identified on these pages; only aggregate counts are published.
Starting a business in private schools & kindergartens?
We confirm the licence conditions for your exact activity code, then take you from MISA licence to commercial registration and municipal licence.