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Public schools in Ohio

1,661,295 pupils attended 3,543 public schools in Ohio in 2024–25, in 1,061 school districts. Its districts spent $16,186 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Ohio, 2024–25

1.7 million
Pupils
1,661,295
3.4% of the nation's public school pupils.
3,543
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
17.2
Pupils per teacher
Over the 3,437 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
339
Charter schools
7.4% of pupils.
$16,186
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Ohio over time

Ohio's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 76,000 from its peak in 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Ohio 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
Ohio's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 76,000 from its peak in 2014–15 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Ohio 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
2014–⁠151,724,8101,693,67531,135
2015–⁠161,716,5851,683,46733,118
2016–⁠171,710,1431,673,99536,148
2017–⁠181,704,3991,666,08938,310
2018–⁠191,695,7621,655,57040,192
2019–⁠201,689,8671,647,47842,389
2020–⁠211,645,4121,615,16630,246
2021–⁠221,683,6121,643,16540,447
2022–⁠231,680,6391,636,05444,585
2023–⁠241,675,3001,628,31246,988
2024–⁠251,665,5661,617,67547,891

Ohio's school districts spent $16,186 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $9,395 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Ohio, 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
Ohio's school districts spent $16,186 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $9,395 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Ohio, 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$9,3951,837,924Provisional
FY2006$9,7911,837,529Provisional
FY2007$10,0031,834,252Provisional
FY2008$10,3891,824,546Provisional
FY2009$10,4901,814,249Provisional
FY2010$11,0181,764,297Provisional
FY2011$11,2151,754,191Provisional
FY2012$11,1851,739,994Provisional
FY2013$11,1311,729,916Provisional
FY2014$11,2551,724,111Provisional
FY2015$11,5201,724,809Provisional
FY2016$11,9041,716,585Provisional
FY2017$12,4361,710,142Provisional
FY2018$12,7521,704,399Provisional
FY2019$13,2941,694,305Final
FY2020$13,5471,689,867Final
FY2021$14,2721,645,412Final
FY2022$15,3231,671,630Final
FY2023$16,1861,680,632Provisional

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

Revenue of all 1,058 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Ohio's school districts 51.6% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Ohio'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 Ohio's school districts 51.6% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Ohio's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$4.4 billion13.8%
State$11.1 billion34.6%
Local$16.6 billion51.6%

The largest districts in Ohio

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 Ohio, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Columbus City Schools District46,51511615.5$22,307
Cincinnati Public Schools34,5316615.9$19,413
Cleveland Municipal33,1439316.7$24,161
Olentangy Local24,1332919.1$13,848
South-Western City21,9243417.7$14,393
Toledo City21,2905715.2$20,477
Akron City19,9864513.2$20,491
Lakota Local17,8852224.5$12,053
Dublin City16,9672317.5$16,843
Hilliard City16,2982416.4$15,050

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Ohio

45.3% of Ohio's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Ohio'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
45.3% of Ohio's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Ohio'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
City78622.2%306,22218.4%
Suburb1,27836.1%751,91845.3%
Town43212.2%198,08311.9%
Rural1,04729.6%405,07224.4%

Colleges in Ohio that take federal student aid

260 colleges in Ohio are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 102 public, 74 private nonprofit and 84 private for-profit. They enrolled 816,630 students over twelve months and awarded 64,844 bachelor’s degrees.

Ohio elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in OhioCrime 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 Ohio 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