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Public schools in Maine

166,127 pupils attended 589 public schools in Maine in 2024–25, in 275 school districts. Its districts spent $18,706 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Maine, 2024–25

166.1 thousand
Pupils
166,127
0.3% of the nation's public school pupils.
589
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
11.3
Pupils per teacher
Over the 561 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
11
Charter schools
1.6% of pupils.
$18,706
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Maine over time

Maine's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 16,490 from its peak in 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Maine 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
Maine's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 16,490 from its peak in 2014–15 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Maine 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
2014–⁠15182,470177,4325,038
2015–⁠16181,613176,2175,396
2016–⁠17180,512175,0755,437
2017–⁠18180,473174,8565,617
2018–⁠19180,461174,5815,880
2019–⁠20180,291174,1366,155
2020–⁠21172,455167,7284,727
2021–⁠22173,215167,6245,591
2022–⁠23173,853167,5996,254
2023–⁠24172,545166,1746,371
2024–⁠25167,309160,9426,367

Maine's school districts spent $18,706 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $10,316 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Maine, 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
Maine's school districts spent $18,706 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $10,316 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Maine, 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$10,316198,745Provisional
FY2006$10,806195,675Provisional
FY2007$11,661193,539Provisional
FY2008$11,987193,058Provisional
FY2009$12,362187,372Provisional
FY2010$12,346187,903Provisional
FY2011$12,607187,931Provisional
FY2012$12,259187,757Provisional
FY2013$12,463184,458Provisional
FY2014$13,005182,752Provisional
FY2015$13,526181,310Provisional
FY2016$13,603180,479Provisional
FY2017$14,099179,252Provisional
FY2018$14,571179,665Provisional
FY2019$14,954179,949Final
FY2020$15,191179,770Final
FY2021$17,642171,913Final
FY2022$17,847172,915Final
FY2023$18,706173,562Provisional

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

Revenue of all 288 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Maine's school districts 51.2% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Maine'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
Local sources gave Maine's school districts 51.2% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Maine's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$324.2 million8.8%
State$1.5 billion40.0%
Local$1.9 billion51.2%

The largest districts in Maine

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 Maine, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Portland Public Schools6,5551710.8$21,356
Lewiston Public Schools5,313811.1$19,006
Bangor Public Schools3,4391012.1$17,728
RSU 06/MSAD 063,297812.1$17,630
Sanford Public Schools3,250612.5$17,579
Auburn Public Schools3,242812.5$14,797
RSU 17/MSAD 173,0751012.7$14,949
RSU 143,051611.9$18,374
RSU 57/MSAD 572,868712.0$15,891
Scarborough Public Schools2,865610.8$20,793

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Maine

54.7% of Maine's public school pupils attended rural schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Maine'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
54.7% of Maine's public school pupils attended rural schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Maine'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
City518.7%22,02013.3%
Suburb6611.2%27,11316.3%
Town7813.2%26,06815.7%
Rural39466.9%90,92654.7%

Colleges in Maine that take federal student aid

33 colleges in Maine are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 14 public, 14 private nonprofit and 5 private for-profit. They enrolled 108,609 students over twelve months and awarded 9,046 bachelor’s degrees.

Maine elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in MaineCrime 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 Maine 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