AP Course Access by State (CRDC 2021-22)
Nationwide, 67.0% of US public high schools offer Advanced Placement courses, meaning about 33.0% offer none. PlainSchools ranks all 51 reporting state systems by AP access, drawn from the federal Civil Rights Data Collection.
Research period:
Key finding
Across the 15,444 US public high schools reporting to the federal Civil Rights Data Collection, 67.0% offer at least one Advanced Placement course. That leaves roughly 33.0% of public high schools, the "AP deserts," offering none.
Access is widest in West Virginia, where 96.6% of high schools offer AP, and narrowest in South Dakota, where only 24.1% do. The pattern tracks geography more than policy: states with many small rural high schools sit at the bottom, because a small school often cannot staff a full AP slate.
Research question
Advanced Placement is one of the main ways US high schoolers earn college credit and signal rigor to admissions. Across the 51 state systems with enough reporting high schools, what share offer AP at all, and where are the widest "AP deserts"?
Methodology
For each state, the figure is the share of public high schools that report offering at least one Advanced Placement course in the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC) for 2021-22. Only schools coded as high schools with a non-null AP flag are counted, and a state needs at least 20 reporting high schools to be ranked so a handful of small systems cannot distort the figure.
This is a school-count measure, not a student-count measure: it answers "what share of high schools offer AP," not "what share of students can reach an AP course." Both views matter, and the limitation section below explains why they differ. Figures are recomputed live from the database on every request, so nothing here is hand-entered.
See the methodology page for source vintage and full details.
States with the widest AP deserts
Top 10 by share of high schools offering NO Advanced Placement course (CRDC 2021-22); higher is worse
All 51 state systems, ranked
Share of public high schools offering Advanced Placement, lowest access first. Every state links to its full profile; figures update with each CRDC release.
| # | State | High schools offering AP | AP-desert share | High schools reporting |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Dakota | 24.1% | 75.9% | 174 |
| 2 | Montana | 32.9% | 67.1% | 173 |
| 3 | Arizona | 35.4% | 64.6% | 319 |
| 4 | Minnesota | 38.0% | 62.0% | 389 |
| 5 | North Dakota | 38.0% | 62.0% | 79 |
| 6 | Idaho | 40.3% | 59.7% | 124 |
| 7 | Kansas | 41.3% | 58.7% | 223 |
| 8 | Wyoming | 42.6% | 57.4% | 68 |
| 9 | New Mexico | 51.6% | 48.4% | 153 |
| 10 | Michigan | 53.5% | 46.5% | 611 |
| 11 | Oklahoma | 53.5% | 46.5% | 469 |
| 12 | Washington | 53.6% | 46.4% | 435 |
| 13 | Nebraska | 54.1% | 45.9% | 111 |
| 14 | Ohio | 58.8% | 41.2% | 648 |
| 15 | Oregon | 59.4% | 40.6% | 202 |
| 16 | Iowa | 59.7% | 40.3% | 226 |
| 17 | Nevada | 60.0% | 40.0% | 120 |
| 18 | California | 62.5% | 37.5% | 1,737 |
| 19 | Missouri | 62.8% | 37.2% | 325 |
| 20 | Louisiana | 63.0% | 37.0% | 173 |
| 21 | Colorado | 64.4% | 35.6% | 315 |
| 22 | Texas | 66.5% | 33.5% | 1,437 |
| 23 | Alaska | 68.1% | 31.9% | 47 |
| 24 | Illinois | 69.6% | 30.4% | 621 |
| 25 | Mississippi | 71.5% | 28.5% | 158 |
| 26 | Utah | 71.6% | 28.4% | 102 |
| 27 | Tennessee | 72.5% | 27.5% | 309 |
| 28 | North Carolina | 73.3% | 26.7% | 517 |
| 29 | New Hampshire | 74.7% | 25.3% | 95 |
| 30 | South Carolina | 75.1% | 24.9% | 209 |
| 31 | Alabama | 75.4% | 24.6% | 228 |
| 32 | District of Columbia | 76.5% | 23.5% | 34 |
| 33 | Kentucky | 78.0% | 22.0% | 218 |
| 34 | Florida | 78.8% | 21.2% | 534 |
| 35 | Wisconsin | 79.9% | 20.1% | 423 |
| 36 | Georgia | 80.5% | 19.5% | 406 |
| 37 | Indiana | 82.4% | 17.6% | 273 |
| 38 | Massachusetts | 83.3% | 16.7% | 276 |
| 39 | Delaware | 84.8% | 15.2% | 33 |
| 40 | Pennsylvania | 85.0% | 15.0% | 468 |
| 41 | New York | 85.5% | 14.5% | 469 |
| 42 | Maine | 87.0% | 13.0% | 92 |
| 43 | Rhode Island | 87.5% | 12.5% | 56 |
| 44 | New Jersey | 88.0% | 12.0% | 392 |
| 45 | Connecticut | 88.8% | 11.2% | 178 |
| 46 | Virginia | 89.7% | 10.3% | 282 |
| 47 | Maryland | 90.6% | 9.4% | 212 |
| 48 | Arkansas | 90.9% | 9.1% | 154 |
| 49 | Hawaii | 91.2% | 8.8% | 34 |
| 50 | Vermont | 95.8% | 4.2% | 24 |
| 51 | West Virginia | 96.6% | 3.4% | 89 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22. AP-offering flag is self-reported by schools. U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22. AP-offering flag is self-reported by schools.
What the data shows
One in three high schools offers no AP
Nationally, 33.0% of reporting public high schools offer no Advanced Placement course at all. Because AP is one of the most common ways a student earns early college credit and signals rigor to admissions, where a student lives can quietly shape the ceiling of their high-school transcript.
The gap is largely rural
The states at the bottom, led by South Dakota at 24.1%, are concentrated in the rural Mountain West and Plains, where many districts run small high schools that cannot staff a full AP program. The states at the top, led by West Virginia at 96.6%, tend to have more centralized or larger high schools. That is why this should be read as a school-access map, not a student-access map: a state with many tiny schools looks worse here even if most of its students attend one of the larger schools that does offer AP.
Why AP access matters
AP availability is one input to opportunity, alongside dual-enrollment, IB, and the staffing and counseling data on each school and state profile. It does not by itself measure school quality, and a school without AP may offer strong alternatives. Treat this ranking as a starting point for asking what advanced coursework a given school actually provides.
What this analysis cannot tell us
This measures the share of high schools that offer any AP course, counted by school, not by student. States with many small rural high schools score lower here even when most students attend a larger school that does offer AP, so a school-count figure understates student-level access in those states. It also counts only whether AP is offered, not how many courses, how many students enroll, or whether other advanced pathways (dual enrollment, International Baccalaureate, Cambridge) fill the gap. The Civil Rights Data Collection AP flag is self-reported by schools and reflects the 2021-22 collection; offerings change year to year. AP access is one input to opportunity, not a complete measure of school quality.
States with the widest AP access
The 10 states where the most high schools offer Advanced Placement (CRDC 2021-22); higher is better
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, Office for Civil Rights, Civil Rights Data Collection (CRDC), 2021-22: https://ocrdata.ed.gov/
- College Board, AP Program: https://ap.collegeboard.org/
Cite this analysis
PlainSchools. (2026). AP Course Access by State (CRDC 2021-22). https://plainschools.com/research/ap-access-by-state/