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Public schools in Alaska

127,890 pupils attended 488 public schools in Alaska in 2024–25, in 53 school districts. Its districts spent $20,340 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Alaska, 2024–25

127.9 thousand
Pupils
127,890
0.3% of the nation's public school pupils.
488
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
18.8
Pupils per teacher
Over the 483 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
31
Charter schools
5.7% of pupils.
$20,340
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Alaska over time

Alaska's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 3,203 from its peak in 2016–⁠17 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Alaska each fall, 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25: all grades, and excluding pre-kindergarten, which is the line the title reads.

Membership is the October 1 count of pupils on a school’s rolls, as the state reported it to NCES.

Every year here reports its pre-kindergarten pupils.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES Common Core of Data — public school membership by state, 2014–15 onwards

The figures behind this chart
Alaska's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 3,203 from its peak in 2016–17 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Alaska each fall, 2014–15 to 2024–25: all grades, and excluding pre-kindergarten, which is the line the title reads.
School yearAll gradesExcluding pre-kindergartenPre-kindergarten
2014–⁠15131,176128,1023,074
2015–⁠16132,477129,1083,369
2016–⁠17132,737129,4913,246
2017–⁠18132,872129,2863,586
2018–⁠19130,963127,4193,544
2019–⁠20132,017128,0333,984
2020–⁠21129,872126,3633,509
2021–⁠22129,944127,0172,927
2022–⁠23130,723127,6123,111
2023–⁠24131,243127,9233,320
2024–⁠25129,876126,2883,588

Alaska's school districts spent $20,340 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $10,830 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Alaska, fiscal years 2005 to 2023: current spending over fall membership, summed over every district. In each year’s dollars, not adjusted for inflation.

Not adjusted for inflation: a dollar in 2005 bought more than a dollar in 2023, and this chart does not say how much more.

Each year is the release NCES has published for it: provisional for most, final for fiscal years 2019 to 2022. A final release revises the provisional one by well under 1% nationally.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) — every fiscal year in the current format

The figures behind this chart
Alaska's school districts spent $20,340 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $10,830 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Alaska, fiscal years 2005 to 2023: current spending over fall membership, summed over every district. In each year’s dollars, not adjusted for inflation.
Fiscal yearPer pupilPupilsRelease
FY2005$10,830132,568Provisional
FY2006$11,460132,893Provisional
FY2007$12,301132,197Provisional
FY2008$14,630130,624Provisional
FY2009$15,552130,236Provisional
FY2010$15,714131,661Provisional
FY2011$16,593132,104Provisional
FY2012$17,338131,166Provisional
FY2013$18,090131,489Provisional
FY2014$18,359130,944Provisional
FY2015$20,197131,139Provisional
FY2016$17,510132,477Provisional
FY2017$17,841132,712Provisional
FY2018$17,726132,872Provisional
FY2019$18,394130,963Final
FY2020$18,313132,017Final
FY2021$19,540129,872Final
FY2022$20,191129,944Final
FY2023$20,340130,723Provisional

Where Alaska’s districts got their money, fiscal year 2023

Revenue of all 54 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

State sources gave Alaska's school districts 55.5% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Alaska's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES School District Finance Survey (F-33) — newest fiscal year

The figures behind this chart
State sources gave Alaska's school districts 55.5% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Alaska's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$620.6 million21.8%
State$1.6 billion55.5%
Local$644.1 million22.7%

The largest districts in Alaska

By fall membership in 2024–25. Spending per pupil is the same district’s fiscal year 2023 figure from NCES’s finance file, where it reports one.

The 10 largest public school districts in Alaska, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Anchorage School District42,5739419.3$16,636
Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District19,4954919.2$15,575
Fairbanks North Star Borough School District11,8573319.5$17,616
Kenai Peninsula Borough School District8,5104216.6$19,862
Galena City School District8,168480.0$6,532
Juneau Borough School District4,0851317.7$20,767
Yukon-Koyukuk School District4,0241152.2$12,886
Lower Kuskokwim School District3,8232715.0$41,997
Nenana City School District2,279283.4$8,241
Kodiak Island Borough School District2,1221214.2$25,688

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Alaska

36.3% of Alaska's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Alaska's operational public schools by the kind of place each school is in, 2024–⁠25: NCES's twelve locales grouped into city, suburb, town and rural.

National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education — NCES Common Core of Data — public schools, newest full school year

The figures behind this chart
36.3% of Alaska's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Alaska's operational public schools by the kind of place each school is in, 2024–25: NCES's twelve locales grouped into city, suburb, town and rural.
LocaleSchoolsShare of schoolsPupilsShare of pupils
City10220.9%46,36836.3%
Suburb316.4%22,44017.5%
Town5411.1%16,18912.7%
Rural30161.7%42,89333.5%

Colleges in Alaska that take federal student aid

10 colleges in Alaska are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 5 public, 3 private nonprofit and 2 private for-profit. They enrolled 34,552 students over twelve months and awarded 1,395 bachelor’s degrees.

Alaska elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

    Offenses reported to police by type, the trend, and the reporting coverage.

  • Most dangerous cities in AlaskaCrime and justice

    What each agency serving 25,000 or more reported, ranked. Agency populations overlap, so these do not add up to the state.

  • Prison populationCrime and justice

    People held under the state’s correctional authority, and the imprisonment rate. A different publisher counting a different thing.

  • Arrests by race, sex and ageCrime and justice

    Arrests as the FBI’s participating agencies reported them, with what the figures can and cannot support at the top.

  • Hate crimeCrime and justice

    Incidents reported to the FBI by bias motivation, as counts — the collection publishes no participation share, so there is no rate to compare states on.

  • Federal obligationsFederal spending

    What federal agencies obligated against a place of performance in the state, per resident and by agency.

  • Registered nonprofitsNonprofits

    How many organizations the IRS lists in the state, what they report as revenue, and which kinds of work they do.

  • Payments to doctorsHealth

    What drug and device companies reported paying doctors with a practice address in the state, and the largest recipients.

  • Farm program paymentsFarm subsidies

    What the Farm Service Agency paid through the state’s county offices, by program and by recipient. The offices that administered the payments, not a count of farms: a recipient addressed elsewhere is counted where they were paid.

  • Paycheck Protection Program loansPPP loans

    The PPP loans SBA guaranteed to businesses operating in the state, by county, with how many carry a forgiveness amount and how many were charged off. Loans, not businesses: a business with two draws is two loans.

  • The Alaska Factbook entryAcross the Factbook

    Every measure the Factbook publishes for this state in one place, each with where it ranks among the others and the record it came from.

The immigration hub has no page for this state: EOIR runs no immigration court here, and CBP publishes by sector and field office, which are its own areas of responsibility rather than a geography. Immigration and the border.

Sources

SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), 2024–25; “School District Finance Survey (F-33),” fiscal year 2023; Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (IPEDS).

Data retrieved