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Public schools in Nebraska

330,483 pupils attended 1,097 public schools in Nebraska in 2024–25, in 280 school districts. Its districts spent $15,186 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Nebraska, 2024–25

330.5 thousand
Pupils
330,483
0.7% of the nation's public school pupils.
1,097
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
13.7
Pupils per teacher
Over the 1,068 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
0
Charter schools
No charter schools in 2024–25.
$15,186
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Nebraska over time

Nebraska's public schools enrolled 311,047 pupils excluding pre-kindergarten in 2024–⁠25, the most in the 11 years NCES's state file holds

Public school membership in Nebraska 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
Nebraska's public schools enrolled 311,047 pupils excluding pre-kindergarten in 2024–25, the most in the 11 years NCES's state file holds. Public school membership in Nebraska 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
2014–⁠15312,635297,38215,253
2015–⁠16316,014300,34915,665
2016–⁠17319,194302,72716,467
2017–⁠18323,766306,25317,513
2018–⁠19326,392307,90918,483
2019–⁠20330,018310,52319,495
2020–⁠21324,697306,91117,786
2021–⁠22327,564308,50519,059
2022–⁠23329,234309,72319,511
2023–⁠24329,162309,64719,515
2024–⁠25330,622311,04719,575

Nebraska's school districts spent $15,186 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $8,304 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Nebraska, 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
Nebraska's school districts spent $15,186 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $8,304 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Nebraska, 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$8,304284,553Provisional
FY2006$8,754285,547Provisional
FY2007$9,141287,135Provisional
FY2008$9,577290,912Provisional
FY2009$10,045292,161Provisional
FY2010$10,721295,314Provisional
FY2011$10,795298,500Provisional
FY2012$11,262301,296Provisional
FY2013$11,569303,505Provisional
FY2014$11,715307,677Provisional
FY2015$11,932312,635Provisional
FY2016$12,281316,014Provisional
FY2017$12,565319,194Provisional
FY2018$12,801323,766Provisional
FY2019$12,736326,164Final
FY2020$12,924329,672Final
FY2021$13,814324,464Final
FY2022$14,272327,346Final
FY2023$15,186329,160Provisional

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

Revenue of all 280 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Nebraska's school districts 59.6% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Nebraska'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 Nebraska's school districts 59.6% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Nebraska's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$645.2 million11.3%
State$1.7 billion29.2%
Local$3.4 billion59.6%

The largest districts in Nebraska

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 Nebraska, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Omaha Public Schools52,52411216.7$16,585
Lincoln Public Schools42,3017813.9$13,573
Millard Public Schools23,2533615.3$11,579
Papillion LA Vista Community Schools12,0692214.7$12,422
Elkhorn Public Schools11,6532014.5$11,437
Grand Island Public Schools9,9832315.5$13,267
Bellevue Public Schools9,5022114.7$13,985
Gretna Public Schools7,0131215.2$11,616
Westside Community Schools6,3301414.2$15,352
Kearney Public Schools6,0661515.5$11,473

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Nebraska

40.0% of Nebraska's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Nebraska'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
40.0% of Nebraska's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Nebraska'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
City27324.9%132,04140.0%
Suburb988.9%44,84613.6%
Town17716.1%58,93117.8%
Rural54950.0%94,66528.6%

Colleges in Nebraska that take federal student aid

38 colleges in Nebraska are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 16 public, 15 private nonprofit and 7 private for-profit. They enrolled 181,631 students over twelve months and awarded 14,392 bachelor’s degrees.

Nebraska elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in NebraskaCrime 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 Nebraska 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