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Public schools in Delaware

142,156 pupils attended 236 public schools in Delaware in 2024–25, in 46 school districts. Its districts spent $20,525 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Delaware, 2024–25

142.2 thousand
Pupils
142,156
0.3% of the nation's public school pupils.
236
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
14.7
Pupils per teacher
Over the 224 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
24
Charter schools
13.4% of pupils.
$20,525
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Delaware over time

Delaware's public schools enrolled 139,425 pupils excluding pre-kindergarten in 2024–⁠25, the most in the 11 years NCES's state file holds

Public school membership in Delaware 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
Delaware's public schools enrolled 139,425 pupils excluding pre-kindergarten in 2024–25, the most in the 11 years NCES's state file holds. Public school membership in Delaware 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
2014–⁠15134,042132,5221,520
2015–⁠16134,847133,2941,553
2016–⁠17136,264134,5031,761
2017–⁠18136,293134,4911,802
2018–⁠19138,405136,3242,081
2019–⁠20139,930137,7162,214
2020–⁠21138,092135,9932,099
2021–⁠22139,935137,8952,040
2022–⁠23141,465139,1832,282
2023–⁠24141,842139,3132,529
2024–⁠25142,156139,4252,731

Delaware's school districts spent $20,525 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $10,788 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Delaware, 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
Delaware's school districts spent $20,525 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $10,788 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Delaware, 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$10,788119,107Provisional
FY2006$11,513120,937Provisional
FY2007$11,704122,254Provisional
FY2008$12,103122,574Provisional
FY2009$12,079125,430Provisional
FY2010$12,191126,801Provisional
FY2011$12,486129,403Provisional
FY2012$13,608128,946Provisional
FY2013$13,476128,627Provisional
FY2014$13,701131,687Provisional
FY2015$13,906134,042Provisional
FY2016$14,493134,847Provisional
FY2017$14,963136,264Provisional
FY2018$15,289136,293Provisional
FY2019$15,910138,405Final
FY2020$16,682139,930Final
FY2021$16,829138,092Final
FY2022$18,713139,935Final
FY2023$20,525141,465Provisional

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

Revenue of all 45 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

State sources gave Delaware's school districts 57.0% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Delaware'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 Delaware's school districts 57.0% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Delaware's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$379.7 million12.1%
State$1.8 billion57.0%
Local$971.0 million30.9%

The largest districts in Delaware

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 Delaware, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Red Clay Consolidated School District14,4442813.8$22,094
Christina School District12,9542912.5$33,954
Appoquinimink School District12,8972114.7$17,023
Indian River School District10,7531613.8$19,367
Brandywine School District10,3491713.9$21,228
Colonial School District8,5751514.4$23,018
Caesar Rodney School District8,3431515.3$18,253
Cape Henlopen School District6,6541012.5$20,712
Capital School District6,4911418.6$26,301
Smyrna School District5,887816.3$16,084

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Delaware

48.0% of Delaware's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Delaware'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
48.0% of Delaware's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Delaware'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
City3816.1%17,79012.5%
Suburb11046.6%68,29448.0%
Town4117.4%27,75919.5%
Rural4719.9%28,31319.9%

Colleges in Delaware that take federal student aid

14 colleges in Delaware are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 4 public, 3 private nonprofit and 7 private for-profit. They enrolled 72,064 students over twelve months and awarded 7,070 bachelor’s degrees.

Delaware elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in DelawareCrime 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 Delaware 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