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Total School Districts, Student Enrollment by State and Metro Area

View numbers of local school districts and student enrollment statistics for states and metro areas.

kids-city
Kids walking to school in Seattle, where less than one in every five households has children.
(David Kidd)
Numbers of school districts and student enrollments vary greatly across different regions of the country.

One way to measure school district "fragmentation" is to compare average student enrollments for school districts. Nationally, local public school districts had an average enrollment of 3,659 students in the 2013-2014 school year.

A review of 2013-2014 school year enrollment data finds districts with smaller enrollemnts are fairly prevalent across the country. About a third of all local districts are made up of only one or two public schools. Nearly half of all districts nationally -- 46 percent -- have fewer than 1,000 students.

In general, rural states tend to report smaller average student enrollments. Texas (1,029) and California (941) reported the highest tallies of school districts. Hawaii, by contrast, maintains the country's only statewide public school district.

This table shows student enrollment statistics and numbers of local districts by state for the 2013-2014 school year:

StateAverage District EnrollmentTotal EnrollmentTotal DistrictsExcluded DistrictsTotal Schools
Montana354144,0344158818
North Dakota587101,5931829465
South Dakota869130,3661511684
Maine980175,40423859596
Nebraska1,235307,39824901,056
Oklahoma1,293667,24652151,757
Iowa1,432494,04334831,380
Missouri1,712857,782521202,133
Kansas1,717491,147309231,335
Wyoming1,92892,563480352
Arkansas2,027478,27323821,047
Wisconsin2,046863,58742202,197
New Jersey2,2911,335,382602192,410
New York2,3801,625,554697142,879
Illinois2,3882,025,371865173,927
Idaho2,431277,0841151657
Minnesota2,459789,472340191,932
Alaska2,506130,294531506
Michigan2,5091,347,390550133,009
Ohio2,6041,601,39361833,200
Connecticut3,046514,83016901,041
Oregon3,121546,22718051,198
Pennsylvania3,2001,596,60850012,801
Massachusetts3,297784,56923801,524
Indiana3,4511,007,67129641,823
Mississippi3,629410,08915138839
New Mexico3,668326,476890809
Washington3,7271,047,182298172,296
Rhode Island3,940122,130354254
Kentucky3,984673,31617561,476
Arizona4,547936,781226201,487
Texas4,8524,929,9861,029138,543
Colorado4,857864,58317801,795
West Virginia5,250272,974553711
Alabama6,307630,683137371,244
Delaware6,341120,475190199
California6,6405,995,854941389,551
Tennessee7,387982,44414181,819
South Carolina8,759726,9658411,181
Louisiana9,342653,9217001,292
Georgia9,4401,699,18518002,320
Virginia9,6871,259,29513221,967
North Carolina12,5201,439,85611502,446
Utah14,949568,045413889
Nevada27,223435,574182637
Maryland36,074865,7682401,441
District of Columbia44,94244,94210115
Florida46,2372,681,7516794,218
Hawaii186,825186,82510290

See methodology

Metro Area School District Data

Select a region to display school district and student enrollment statistics for metro areas:


Data and Methodology

Governing compiled data from the 2013-2014 Local Education Agency Universe Survey published by the National Center for Education Statistics. Only local public school districts were included in calculations; charter districts, state education agencies and other school district types were not included. A small number of districts reported no enrollment data or zero students, which were also excluded from state and metro area averages.
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