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Public schools in Pennsylvania

1,666,699 pupils attended 2,932 public schools in Pennsylvania in 2024–25, in 787 school districts. Its districts spent $19,834 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Pennsylvania, 2024–25

1.7 million
Pupils
1,666,699
3.4% of the nation's public school pupils.
2,932
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
13.4
Pupils per teacher
Over the 2,924 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
175
Charter schools
10.1% of pupils.
$19,834
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Pennsylvania over time

Pennsylvania's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 52,813 from its peak in 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Pennsylvania 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
Pennsylvania's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 52,813 from its peak in 2014–15 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Pennsylvania 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
2014–⁠151,743,1601,735,0548,106
2015–⁠161,717,4141,709,2138,201
2016–⁠171,727,4971,719,6387,859
2017–⁠181,726,8091,718,3118,498
2018–⁠191,730,7571,721,4449,313
2019–⁠201,732,4491,722,34110,108
2020–⁠211,704,3961,697,2777,119
2021–⁠221,695,0921,688,2566,836
2022–⁠231,693,3471,684,7958,552
2023–⁠241,692,8291,683,0069,823
2024–⁠251,691,4561,682,2419,215
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Pennsylvania's school districts spent $19,834 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $10,552 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Pennsylvania, 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
Pennsylvania's school districts spent $19,834 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $10,552 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Pennsylvania, 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$10,5521,803,589Provisional
FY2006$11,0241,807,668Provisional
FY2007$11,3921,820,217Provisional
FY2008$12,0781,785,863Provisional
FY2009$12,5241,759,835Provisional
FY2010$12,9811,762,878Provisional
FY2011$13,3291,766,164Provisional
FY2012$13,2491,750,183Provisional
FY2013$14,4491,743,473Provisional
FY2014$13,8611,734,263Provisional
FY2015$14,5351,722,465Provisional
FY2016$15,2091,703,736Provisional
FY2017$15,5881,709,617Provisional
FY2018$16,1741,708,022Provisional
FY2019$16,6381,712,521Final
FY2020$16,9351,713,651Final
FY2021$17,4911,685,589Final
FY2022$18,9091,676,171Final
FY2023$19,8341,674,348Provisional
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Where Pennsylvania’s districts got their money, fiscal year 2023

Revenue of all 793 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Pennsylvania's school districts 56.6% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Pennsylvania'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 Pennsylvania's school districts 56.6% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Pennsylvania's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$4.7 billion10.4%
State$14.8 billion33.0%
Local$25.4 billion56.6%
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The largest districts in Pennsylvania

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 Pennsylvania, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchools
Philadelphia City SD120,057220
Commonwealth Charter Academy CS29,3211
Pittsburgh SD19,57156
Central Bucks SD16,94123
Allentown City SD16,76923
Reading SD16,66419
Hazleton Area SD13,14111
Downingtown Area SD13,07416
North Penn SD12,91117
Bethlehem Area SD12,76922

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Pennsylvania

48.5% of Pennsylvania's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Pennsylvania'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
48.5% of Pennsylvania's public school pupils attended suburban schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Pennsylvania'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
City56119.1%361,03021.7%
Suburb1,24542.5%807,59048.5%
Town31810.8%158,0309.5%
Rural80827.6%340,04920.4%
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Colleges in Pennsylvania that take federal student aid

290 colleges in Pennsylvania are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 84 public, 117 private nonprofit and 89 private for-profit. They enrolled 796,837 students over twelve months and awarded 80,516 bachelor’s degrees.

Pennsylvania elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in PennsylvaniaCrime 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 Pennsylvania 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