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Public schools in Wisconsin

805,901 pupils attended 2,190 public schools in Wisconsin in 2024–25, in 465 school districts. Its districts spent $14,704 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $16,398 nationally.

Wisconsin, 2024–25

805.9 thousand
Pupils
805,901
1.6% of the nation's public school pupils.
2,190
Public schools
Operational public schools in NCES’s 2024–25 directory.
13.7
Pupils per teacher
Over the 2,158 schools that report both counts; nationally 15.2.
225
Charter schools
6.0% of pupils.
$14,704
Spending per pupil
Current spending over fall membership, fiscal year 2023.

Wisconsin over time

Wisconsin's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 56,930 from its peak in 2014–⁠15 to 2024–⁠25

Public school membership in Wisconsin 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
Wisconsin's public school enrollment excluding pre-kindergarten fell by 56,930 from its peak in 2014–15 to 2024–25. Public school membership in Wisconsin 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
2014–⁠15871,432815,60155,831
2015–⁠16867,800811,89355,907
2016–⁠17864,432808,99655,436
2017–⁠18860,753805,56755,186
2018–⁠19859,333803,23756,096
2019–⁠20855,400799,06256,338
2020–⁠21830,066782,94047,126
2021–⁠22829,359778,15151,208
2022–⁠23823,040772,42850,612
2023–⁠24814,202764,08950,113
2024–⁠25806,065758,67147,394
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Wisconsin's school districts spent $14,704 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $9,632 in 2005, in each year's dollars

Current spending per pupil in Wisconsin, 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
Wisconsin's school districts spent $14,704 per pupil in fiscal year 2023, against $9,632 in 2005, in each year's dollars. Current spending per pupil in Wisconsin, 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$9,632869,301Provisional
FY2006$9,970869,596Provisional
FY2007$10,267870,584Provisional
FY2008$10,680867,929Provisional
FY2009$11,078867,035Provisional
FY2010$11,266872,436Provisional
FY2011$11,665872,286Provisional
FY2012$10,943871,105Provisional
FY2013$10,960872,436Provisional
FY2014$11,067874,414Provisional
FY2015$11,250871,380Provisional
FY2016$11,324867,800Provisional
FY2017$11,851864,424Provisional
FY2018$12,159860,752Provisional
FY2019$12,487859,329Final
FY2020$12,624855,397Final
FY2021$13,466830,066Final
FY2022$14,341829,358Final
FY2023$14,704823,040Provisional
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Where Wisconsin’s districts got their money, fiscal year 2023

Revenue of all 471 districts in NCES’s finance file, by source. Nationally, 12.6% came from federal sources.

Local sources gave Wisconsin's school districts 44.7% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023

Revenue of Wisconsin'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 Wisconsin's school districts 44.7% of their revenue in fiscal year 2023. Revenue of Wisconsin's public school districts by source, fiscal year 2023, as a share of their total revenue.
SourceRevenueShare of revenue
Federal$2.0 billion12.5%
State$6.7 billion42.8%
Local$7.0 billion44.7%
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The largest districts in Wisconsin

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 Wisconsin, 2024–25
DistrictPupilsSchools
Milwaukee School District65,599154
Madison Metropolitan School District25,15554
Green Bay Area Public School District18,37941
Kenosha School District18,31533
Racine Unified School District15,78125
Appleton Area School District14,99439
Waukesha School District10,92227
Eau Claire Area School District10,68723
Janesville School District9,35522
Sheboygan Area School District9,28526

City, suburb, town and rural schools in Wisconsin

29.6% of Wisconsin's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–⁠25

Pupils in Wisconsin'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
29.6% of Wisconsin's public school pupils attended city schools in 2024–25. Pupils in Wisconsin'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
City54925.1%238,42129.6%
Suburb37116.9%194,27924.1%
Town37617.2%151,74818.8%
Rural89440.8%221,45327.5%
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Colleges in Wisconsin that take federal student aid

81 colleges in Wisconsin are in NCES’s IPEDS universe for 2025–26: 32 public, 28 private nonprofit and 21 private for-profit. They enrolled 426,456 students over twelve months and awarded 34,414 bachelor’s degrees.

Wisconsin elsewhere on the Factbook

  • Reported crimeCrime and justice

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

  • Most dangerous cities in WisconsinCrime 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.

  • 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 Wisconsin 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 hub has no page for this state: EOIR runs no immigration court here, and CBP publishes by sector and field office, which are its own areas of responsibility rather than a geography. 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