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Public schools in Tennessee

1,002,363 pupils attended 1,913 public schools in Tennessee in 2024–25, in 149 school districts. Its districts spent $12,178 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Tennessee, 2024–25

1.0 million
Pupils
1,002,363
2.0% of the nation's public school pupils.
1,913
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
Not reported
Pupils per teacher
Tennessee reported no teachers to NCES for 2024–25.
114
Charter schools
4.5% of pupils.
$12,178
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Tennessee over time

Tennessee's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 11,019 from its peak in 2019–⁠20 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Tennessee 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
Tennessee's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 11,019 from its peak in 2019–20 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Tennessee 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
2014–⁠15995,475969,56325,912
2015–⁠161,001,235970,88330,352
2016–⁠171,001,562973,57527,987
2017–⁠181,001,967973,58828,379
2018–⁠191,007,624975,34832,276
2019–⁠201,014,744981,32133,423
2020–⁠21985,207958,74926,458
2021–⁠22996,709967,27829,431
2022–⁠231,006,752973,98332,769
2023–⁠241,004,625971,74132,884
2024–⁠251,003,622970,30233,320

Tennessee's school districts spent $12,178 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $6,731 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Tennessee, 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
Tennessee's school districts spent $12,178 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $6,731 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Tennessee, 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$6,731940,769Provisional
FY2006$6,885953,514Provisional
FY2007$7,115978,084Provisional
FY2008$7,710966,963Provisional
FY2009$7,893971,484Provisional
FY2010$8,055972,542Provisional
FY2011$8,079987,422Provisional
FY2012$8,286999,693Provisional
FY2013$8,199993,496Provisional
FY2014$8,622993,556Provisional
FY2015$8,718995,471Provisional
FY2016$8,8021,000,169Provisional
FY2017$9,1751,001,558Provisional
FY2018$9,5361,001,961Provisional
FY2019$9,8621,006,309Final
FY2020$9,8941,014,350Final
FY2021$10,484985,203Final
FY2022$11,200996,703Final
FY2023$12,1781,006,750Provisional

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

Revenue of all 148 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Tennessee's school districts 42.0% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Tennessee'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 Tennessee's school districts 42.0% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Tennessee's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$2.6 billion18.3%
State$5.8 billion39.8%
Local$6.1 billion42.0%

The largest districts in Tennessee

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 Tennessee, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchoolsPupils per teacherSpending per pupil, fiscal year 2023
Memphis-Shelby County Schools111,124223$13,695
Davidson County81,021162$17,808
Knox County60,18595$11,187
Rutherford County52,12755$10,708
Hamilton County45,98182$14,785
Williamson County41,59352$11,899
Montgomery County39,38544$10,645
Sumner County30,71953$11,191
Wilson County20,70325$9,322
Sevier County14,40833$12,911

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Tennessee

34.8% of Tennessee's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Tennessee'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
34.8% of Tennessee's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Tennessee'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
City64633.8%349,27934.8%
Suburb28314.8%197,23419.7%
Town29015.2%146,44614.6%
Rural69436.3%309,40430.9%

Colleges in Tennessee that take federal student aid

135 colleges in Tennessee are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 46 public, 44 private nonprofit and 45 private for-profit. They enrolled 445,646 students over twelve months and awarded 35,181 bachelor’s degrees.

Tennessee elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in TennesseeCrime 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 Tennessee 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