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Public schools in Massachusetts

915,932 pupils attended 1,823 public schools in Massachusetts in 2024–25, in 421 school districts. Its districts spent $22,953 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Massachusetts, 2024–25

915.9 thousand
Pupils
915,932
1.9% of the nation's public school pupils.
1,823
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
11.9
Pupils per teacher
Over the 1,814 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
73
Charter schools
5.3% of pupils.
$22,953
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Massachusetts over time

Massachusetts's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 50,611 from its peak in 2016–⁠17 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Massachusetts 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
Massachusetts's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 50,611 from its peak in 2016–17 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Massachusetts 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
2014–⁠15955,844927,46928,375
2015–⁠16964,026934,72929,297
2016–⁠17964,514934,88129,633
2017–⁠18964,791934,10730,684
2018–⁠19962,297931,88130,416
2019–⁠20959,394928,65730,737
2020–⁠21921,712900,43021,282
2021–⁠22921,180893,36427,816
2022–⁠23923,349892,31231,037
2023–⁠24914,958882,86232,096
2024–⁠25915,932884,27031,662

Massachusetts's school districts spent $22,953 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $11,821 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Massachusetts, 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
Massachusetts's school districts spent $22,953 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $11,821 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Massachusetts, 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$11,821955,225Provisional
FY2006$12,589949,951Provisional
FY2007$13,413945,070Provisional
FY2008$14,193937,677Provisional
FY2009$14,025958,821Provisional
FY2010$13,200957,053Provisional
FY2011$13,508954,648Provisional
FY2012$14,063953,369Provisional
FY2013$13,403954,773Provisional
FY2014$15,138955,739Provisional
FY2015$15,740955,842Provisional
FY2016$15,503964,026Provisional
FY2017$16,147964,514Provisional
FY2018$16,973954,031Provisional
FY2019$17,785951,631Final
FY2020$18,657948,950Final
FY2021$20,184911,465Final
FY2022$21,839911,529Final
FY2023$22,953923,349Provisional

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

Revenue of all 428 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Massachusetts's school districts 51.1% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Massachusetts'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 Massachusetts's school districts 51.1% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Massachusetts's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$1.9 billion8.3%
State$9.4 billion40.7%
Local$11.8 billion51.1%

The largest districts in Massachusetts

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 Massachusetts, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Boston46,09410810.6$36,906
Worcester24,7784713.0$22,198
Springfield23,6706611.4$26,729
Lynn16,3642712.0$23,710
Brockton15,2802415.6$24,465
Lowell14,4572712.6$22,286
Lawrence13,3132611.5$23,176
New Bedford12,5052411.7$22,807
Newton11,6322210.5$26,981
Fall River11,0891912.4$22,016

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Massachusetts

70.8% of Massachusetts's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Massachusetts'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
70.8% of Massachusetts's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Massachusetts'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
City35519.5%166,45918.2%
Suburb1,20366.0%648,86670.8%
Town553.0%19,2302.1%
Rural21011.5%81,3778.9%

Colleges in Massachusetts that take federal student aid

134 colleges in Massachusetts are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 40 public, 72 private nonprofit and 22 private for-profit. They enrolled 605,871 students over twelve months and awarded 61,260 bachelor’s degrees.

Massachusetts elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in MassachusettsCrime 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.

  • The Massachusetts 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