What are the largest school districts in the U.S.?
New York City, New York is the largest public school district, with 845,509 students, 2 times as many as Los Angeles Unified, California (419,929). Miami-Dade County, Florida is third with 335,500. Together the 100 largest districts teach 10.2 million students, and even the 100th, Frederick County, Maryland, has 47,681. These are the enrollments the Census Bureau used for its school finance survey of the school year that ended in 2024, from the Department of Education's count, which can be a year or so older.
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Key facts
Measure: Students enrolled. Written from the data below.
- New York City, New York has the highest figure, 845,509, followed by Los Angeles Unified, California (419,929) and Miami-Dade County, Florida (335,500).
- Frederick County, Maryland has the lowest figure, 47,681, followed by Plano, Texas (47,899) and Horry County, South Carolina (48,205).
- The highest is 18 times the lowest.
Each of the 100 largest school districts has its own page: find your school district to see its spending per student and students next to its state's and the U.S. figures.
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Chartly. “What are the largest school districts in the U.S.?” Chart. Data: U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of School System Finances, https://www.census.gov/programs-surveys/school-finances/data/tables.html (data as of June 30, 2024). https://chart.ly/charts/largest-school-districts (accessed November 4, 2026).
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