COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) -- A new database allows users to examine and compare private school demographics of more than 1,000 private schools in Ohio. The data was collected for all 50 states and Washington, D.C., by ProPublica and published in an interactive database launched Jan. 16. The data can be broken down by state, after which it can be further sorted by religious orientation and what grade level or program it serves. Users can also search for individual schools nation-wide. ProPublica used data from the National Center for Education Statistics' Private School Universe Survey. The survey has been distributed every other year since 1989 and aims to provide more information about the school options that may not be required to submit state data. State law will allow schools to expel students indefinitely In Ohio, more students are attending private schools than ever before. According to data from the Ohio Department of Education and Workforce, private school enrollment numbers were on a steady decline from 2014 to 2021. After a state program offering scholarships to attend private schools expanded in 2022, numbers increased rapidly, surpassing 2014's numbers in just three years. This school year is the first in Ohio to surpass 180,000 private school students since 2010. According to the data, Ohio's public schools are more diverse than Ohio's private schools. Neither is as racially diverse as Ohio's population as reported in the 2020 U.S. Census, which includes adult populations, which may contribute to the difference in racial diversity. The data also does not include schools that did not respond to the survey or homeschool populations, which could contribute as well. Users can look at specific information for each of Ohio's 1,055 private schools included in the data. When observing individual private schools, users can look at the racial makeup of their student bodies, the address of the school, when it was founded, what grade levels it serves and what religious orientation it is affiliated with. The data also includes racial demographics over time and allows users to look at the survey responses from different years. Governor creates group to investigate how missing persons cases are handled The data also compares each private school to the public school district it resides in. For some, the districts were comparable; ProPublica compared Columbus Academy to Gahanna-Jefferson schools and found their population of white students was within one percent of each other -- 55.9% for Academy and 55.5% for Gahanna. In some cases, this led to significant diversity differences between districts, such as Bishop Watterson High School and its comparison school, Columbus City Schools. Bishop Watterson is 86.9% white and just 2.7% Black, compared to Columbus, which is 19.6% white and 56.8% Black. According to the data, about 58% of Ohio's private schools are Christian-affiliated. That number does not include Christian Amish schools, which also make up a large number of Ohio's private schools. ProPublica's work marks the first time private school data has been consolidated in this way. Although the National Center for Education Statistics' survey allows people to see recent data, examining historical data and trends required sorting through large text files, ProPublic said. The free database is available online.