The Largest School Districts in the United States
The 55 largest US public school districts ranked by fall membership in the 2023–24 NCES Common Core of Data LEA Membership file.
America’s largest school districts are city-sized systems. The biggest, Los Angeles Unified, enrolls 419,929 students — more than the entire public school population of several states — and the 55 districts ranked here together enroll 7,212,667 students, about 14.5% of the national public school total, in roughly 11,219 schools. Rankings use fall membership from the 2023–24 CCD LEA Membership file, the federal census of district enrollment, and count students where their district reports them.
Why New York City is not on this list
New York City runs the largest school system in the country, but the federal files administer it as 32 separate geographic districts plus citywide special districts, each its own local education agency with its own membership record. Adding a synthetic “New York City” row would mean inventing an agency the source file does not contain, so this ranking lists federal agencies as published. The geographic districts individually enroll about 40,000–60,000 students, and all of the city’s campuses appear together on the New York city page. The same rule explains Hawaii and Puerto Rico: each is a single statewide district in the CCD, so each appears once with its full enrollment.
Each ranked district links to a full page with staffing, lunch eligibility, completions and spending. For the state-by-state view, see the state index; for individual campuses, the largest schools ranking.
Data: National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Common Core of Data and EDFacts, retrieved October 2026, from nces.ed.gov. Enrollment, staffing and lunch figures are for the 2023–24 school year; finance figures are fiscal year 2024 (school year 2023–24) unless a page labels them otherwise.
Disclaimer: Public School Stats republishes official federal statistics for general information only. Figures are reported as published by NCES and EDFacts and may include imputed or revised values; for decisions affecting a specific school or district, confirm the figure with the district or the NCES source file. See our full Disclaimer.