U.S. school enrollment and education data
Public K-12 enrollment, staffing, student need and outcomes for every state and 3,140 counties, 1986 through 2024 — from the NCES Common Core of Data, with the most recent graduation rates taken from state report cards.
NCES · 2024–25 school year
U.S. public schools (K-12)
Enrollment, poverty, graduation rates and proficiency for every state and 3,140 counties, from NCES school data back to 1986. In 2024–25, 49,034,047 students attended 101,009 public schools (55.6% eligible for free/reduced-price lunch).
Largest state school systemsstudents enrolled, 2024–25
School statistics by state
Largest county school systems
By students enrolled, 2024–25.
- 1. Los Angeles County, California1,262,149
- 2. Harris County, Texas885,618
- 3. Maricopa County, Arizona724,555
- 4. Cook County, Illinois696,942
- 5. San Diego County, California466,146
- 6. Dallas County, Texas451,237
- 7. Orange County, California429,950
- 8. Riverside County, California424,406
- 9. San Bernardino County, California393,087
- 10. Tarrant County, Texas384,099
- 11. Bexar County, Texas363,784
- 12. Clark County, Nevada359,842
- 13. Miami-Dade County, Florida335,631
- 14. Kings County, New York290,852
- 15. King County, Washington277,999
- 16. Queens County, New York268,205
Education data — FAQ
What does the education data cover?+
Every public K-12 school in the U.S., rolled up to states (back to 1986) and counties (from 2002): enrollment, schools, teachers, free/reduced-price lunch, charter share, student demographics, school poverty (MEPS), chronic absenteeism, graduation rates, and math/reading proficiency.
Why do some statistics stop before the latest year?+
Not every federal collection runs every year. Graduation rates cover 2010–2022 at the state level (counties and districts through 2020 — the federal school-level collection stopped there) and proficiency runs through 2021 (the 2019–20 tests were cancelled nationwide during COVID); school poverty (MEPS) runs through 2022; chronic absenteeism is collected only in Civil Rights Data Collection cycle years. Pages label each figure with the school year it describes.
Why is free/reduced-price lunch missing for some states?+
Several states that adopted universal free meals (Arizona, Delaware, DC, Massachusetts, South Carolina, Tennessee, West Virginia) no longer report free/reduced-price lunch counts to the federal government, and 2020–21 reporting is COVID-weakened even where present. For those states and years, school poverty (MEPS) is the better measure of student economic need. States without a charter-school law show a true 0% charter share, not missing data.
Where does this data come from?+
The National Center for Education Statistics — the Common Core of Data, EDFacts, and the Civil Rights Data Collection. Full source and license details are on the methodology page. pumsdata is independent and not affiliated with NCES.
Data: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics (CCD, EDFacts, CRDC) and ED Data Express. Full source and license details on the methodology page.
Education data by state
Definitions for every measure on these pages are in the education glossary.
U.S. education data — FAQ
How many students are enrolled in U.S. public schools?+
49,034,047 students were enrolled in U.S. public K-12 schools in the 2024 school year, as counted by the National Center for Education Statistics. Enrollment is a headcount taken on a single date in the autumn, not an average across the year, so districts with high student mobility serve more children over a full year than the figure suggests.
What education data is available by county?+
Enrollment, school and teacher counts, free-and-reduced-price-lunch share, demographics and graduation rates for 3,140 counties, from 1986 to 2024. County figures aggregate local education agencies, whose boundaries only approximate county lines — a district can cross a county border, and a county can contain many districts of different kinds.
Is free-lunch share a good measure of school poverty?+
It is the most widely used proxy and an increasingly unreliable one. Under the Community Eligibility Provision, a school with enough directly certified students may serve free meals to everyone and then reports 100% eligibility regardless of the actual income distribution. Comparisons across districts, or across the year a district adopted community eligibility, can show a jump in measured poverty that reflects only a change in meal policy.
Where does this data come from?+
Core statistics come from the National Center for Education Statistics — the Common Core of Data, EDFacts and the Civil Rights Data Collection. The most recent graduation rates and state report-card outcomes come directly from state education agencies, which publish sooner than the federal series but define their indicators differently, so those are comparable within a state rather than across states. pumsdata is independent and not affiliated with NCES or any state agency.