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Public schools in Maryland

891,525 pupils attended 1,408 public schools in Maryland in 2024–25, in 25 school districts. Its districts spent $18,879 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Maryland, 2024–25

891.5 thousand
Pupils
891,525
1.8% of the nation's public school pupils.
1,408
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–⁠25 directory.
14.4
Pupils per teacher
Over the 1,388 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
50
Charter schools
2.8% of pupils.
$18,879
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Maryland over time

Maryland's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 17,751 from its peak in 2019–⁠20 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Maryland 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

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The figures

Maryland's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 17,751 from its peak in 2019–20 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Maryland 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
2014–⁠15874,514844,12930,385
2015–⁠16879,601848,56731,034
2016–⁠17886,221855,27630,945
2017–⁠18893,684863,26230,422
2018–⁠19896,827865,87730,950
2019–⁠20909,404877,20132,203
2020–⁠21882,527858,91123,616
2021–⁠22881,461853,69427,767
2022–⁠23889,960859,24230,718
2023–⁠24890,122858,74131,381
2024–⁠25891,525859,45032,075

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Maryland's school districts spent $18,879 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $9,789 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Maryland, 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

About this chart

The figures

Maryland's school districts spent $18,879 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $9,789 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Maryland, 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$9,789865,561Provisional
FY2006$10,670860,021Provisional
FY2007$11,724851,640Provisional
FY2008$12,966845,700Provisional
FY2009$13,449843,781Provisional
FY2010$13,736848,412Provisional
FY2011$13,867852,211Provisional
FY2012$13,604854,086Provisional
FY2013$13,823859,638Provisional
FY2014$13,997866,169Provisional
FY2015$14,185874,514Provisional
FY2016$14,199879,601Provisional
FY2017$14,841886,221Provisional
FY2018$14,755893,684Provisional
FY2019$15,142896,827Final
FY2020$15,482909,404Final
FY2021$16,410882,527Final
FY2022$17,745881,461Final
FY2023$18,879889,960Provisional

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

Revenue of all 25 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Maryland's school districts 47.5% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Maryland'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

About this chart

The figures

Local sources gave Maryland's school districts 47.5% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Maryland's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$2.1 billion10.5%
State$8.3 billion42.0%
Local$9.4 billion47.5%

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The largest districts in Maryland

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.

2 more columns on a wider screen

The 10 largest public school districts in Maryland, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchools
Montgomery County Public Schools159,181211
Prince George's County Public Schools132,123199
Baltimore County Public Schools110,024178
Anne Arundel County Public Schools85,029128
Baltimore City Public Schools76,807151
Howard County Public Schools57,56578
Frederick County Public Schools48,05469
Harford County Public Schools37,77155
Charles County Public Schools28,16240
Carroll County Public Schools26,14144

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Maryland

60.0% of Maryland's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Maryland'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

About this chart

The figures

60.0% of Maryland's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Maryland'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
City28920.5%176,32919.8%
Suburb78255.5%534,79460.0%
Town966.8%52,7205.9%
Rural24117.1%127,68214.3%

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Colleges in Maryland that take federal student aid

73 colleges in Maryland are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 30 public, 17 private nonprofit and 26 private for-profit. They enrolled 474,306 students over twelve months and awarded 36,443 bachelor’s degrees.

Maryland elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in MarylandCrime 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.

  • Immigration courtsImmigration and the border

    The EOIR courts sitting in the state, what they completed and still have pending, and how far apart their asylum grant rates are. The courts, not the state’s residents: a detention court hears cases from far outside it.

  • 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.

  • Federal civilian workforceFederal salaries

    Federal civilian employees stationed in the state by agency and occupation, with the pay OPM publishes and the share it withholds.

  • The Maryland 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 link above is EOIR’s courts, which sit in this state. CBP’s encounters are not by state and will not be: its sectors and field offices are areas of responsibility rather than a geography, and assigning them to states would be a claim the data does not make. 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