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Public schools in New York

2,503,633 pupils attended 4,810 public schools in New York in 2024–25, in 1,110 school districts. Its districts spent $29,533 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

New York, 2024–25

2.5 million
Pupils
2,503,633
5.1% of the nation's public school pupils.
4,810
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–⁠25 directory.
11.3
Pupils per teacher
Over the 4,695 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
350
Charter schools
7.5% of pupils.
$29,533
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

New York over time

New York's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 230,627 from its peak in 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in New York 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

New York's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 230,627 from its peak in 2014–15 to 2024–25. Public school membership in New York 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
2014–⁠152,741,1852,683,83257,353
2015–⁠162,711,6262,661,19650,430
2016–⁠172,729,7762,664,17665,600
2017–⁠182,724,6632,659,10565,558
2018–⁠192,700,8332,634,38766,446
2019–⁠202,692,5892,615,76076,829
2020–⁠212,606,7482,545,84760,901
2021–⁠222,548,4902,483,36265,128
2022–⁠232,532,8882,456,17376,715
2023–⁠242,533,4492,459,89973,550
2024–⁠252,527,2582,453,20574,053

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New York's school districts spent $29,533 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $14,245 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in New York, 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

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The figures

New York's school districts spent $29,533 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $14,245 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in New York, 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$14,2452,819,262Provisional
FY2006$15,2402,790,140Provisional
FY2007$16,3872,757,907Provisional
FY2008$17,6472,730,427Provisional
FY2009$18,1562,699,470Provisional
FY2010$18,2052,765,893Provisional
FY2011$18,7222,734,955Provisional
FY2012$19,1572,703,166Provisional
FY2013$19,2722,710,703Provisional
FY2014$19,9012,718,204Provisional
FY2015$20,4072,740,810Provisional
FY2016$21,4182,711,677Provisional
FY2017$22,0272,729,509Provisional
FY2018$22,8452,724,336Provisional
FY2019$23,8062,699,435Final
FY2020$25,1322,692,363Final
FY2021$26,0512,606,596Final
FY2022$29,3242,547,696Final
FY2023$29,5332,532,738Provisional

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Where New York’s districts got their money, fiscal year 2023

Revenue of all 1,113 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave New York's school districts 51.0% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of New York'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

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The figures

Local sources gave New York's school districts 51.0% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of New York's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$8.5 billion9.7%
State$34.4 billion39.3%
Local$44.6 billion51.0%

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The largest districts in New York

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 York, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchools
New York City (33 geographic districts)837,7771,592
Buffalo City School District30,07761
Yonkers City School District24,30440
Rochester City School District21,99040
Syracuse City School District18,66231
Brentwood Union Free School District18,46217
Sachem Central School District11,69715
Newburgh City School District11,07612
East Ramapo Central School District (Spring Valley)10,91814
Wappingers Central School District10,51415

City, suburb, town and rural schools in New York

45.9% of New York's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in New York'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

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The figures

45.9% of New York's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–25. Pupils in New York'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
City2,19045.5%1,148,20845.9%
Suburb1,48030.8%902,13336.0%
Town3186.6%146,9795.9%
Rural82217.1%306,31312.2%

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Colleges in New York that take federal student aid

394 colleges in New York are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 107 public, 208 private nonprofit and 79 private for-profit. They enrolled 1,476,786 students over twelve months and awarded 132,258 bachelor’s degrees.

New York 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 YorkCrime 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 York 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