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Public schools in New Jersey

1,355,569 pupils attended 2,557 public schools in New Jersey in 2024–25, in 697 school districts. Its districts spent $26,090 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

New Jersey, 2024–25

1.4 million
Pupils
1,355,569
2.8% of the nation's public school pupils.
2,557
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
11.6
Pupils per teacher
Over the 2,485 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
86
Charter schools
4.7% of pupils.
$26,090
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

New Jersey over time

New Jersey's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 41,217 from its peak in 2016–⁠17 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in New Jersey 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
New Jersey's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 41,217 from its peak in 2016–17 to 2024–25. Public school membership in New Jersey 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
2014–⁠151,400,5791,345,47355,106
2015–⁠161,408,8451,345,56163,284
2016–⁠171,410,4211,348,27262,149
2017–⁠181,408,1021,343,75164,351
2018–⁠191,400,0691,336,70563,364
2019–⁠201,411,9171,343,63868,279
2020–⁠211,373,9601,317,39756,563
2021–⁠221,372,3811,306,87165,510
2022–⁠231,383,8301,312,08171,749
2023–⁠241,392,5671,308,67683,891
2024–⁠251,394,9711,307,05587,916
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New Jersey's school districts spent $26,090 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $14,289 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in New Jersey, 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
New Jersey's school districts spent $26,090 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $14,289 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in New Jersey, 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$14,2891,382,110Provisional
FY2006$15,1591,385,924Provisional
FY2007$16,2681,379,604Provisional
FY2008$17,0791,370,462Provisional
FY2009$16,2971,374,260Provisional
FY2010$16,7841,392,949Provisional
FY2011$16,2181,398,878Provisional
FY2012$17,3311,353,208Provisional
FY2013$17,5111,369,423Provisional
FY2014$17,8451,368,412Provisional
FY2015$18,1871,377,071Provisional
FY2016$18,3701,408,220Provisional
FY2017$18,8391,408,399Provisional
FY2018$19,4071,407,502Provisional
FY2019$20,3711,401,935Final
FY2020$20,5491,410,736Final
FY2021$21,9491,373,607Final
FY2022$24,8691,372,330Final
FY2023$26,0901,383,785Provisional
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Where New Jersey’s districts got their money, fiscal year 2023

Revenue of all 700 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave New Jersey's school districts 49.9% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of New Jersey'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 New Jersey's school districts 49.9% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of New Jersey's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$3.2 billion7.4%
State$18.3 billion42.7%
Local$21.4 billion49.9%
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The largest districts in New Jersey

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 New Jersey, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchools
Newark Public School District44,19964
Elizabeth Public Schools28,45437
Jersey City Public Schools25,95139
Paterson Public School District24,29143
Edison Township School District17,03219
Trenton Public School District15,96425
Toms River Regional School District14,45418
Woodbridge Township School District14,04224
Union City School District12,76414
Hamilton Township Public School District12,47623

City, suburb, town and rural schools in New Jersey

77.6% of New Jersey's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in New Jersey'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
77.6% of New Jersey's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–25. Pupils in New Jersey'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
City2479.7%158,35111.7%
Suburb1,98977.8%1,051,62177.6%
Town572.2%27,6042.0%
Rural26410.3%117,9938.7%
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Colleges in New Jersey that take federal student aid

147 colleges in New Jersey are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 39 public, 50 private nonprofit and 58 private for-profit. They enrolled 547,585 students over twelve months and awarded 43,192 bachelor’s degrees.

New Jersey elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in New JerseyCrime 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 New Jersey 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