Idaho public school enrollment
314,063
Students enrolled in Idaho public schools, 2025
−1.3% since 2024 (318,067); +1.1% since 2020 (310,653); +6.7% since 2015 (294,471)
Source: Idaho State Department of Education, Historical Fall Enrollment by District or Charter, and Historical Charter School Enrollment. Data period 2025. Published .
Idaho statewide fall public school enrollment (non-weighted membership headcount), by school year. The period is the calendar year the school year begins in (2024 for school year 2024-25).
Change and comparison
From 1995 (243,097) to 2025 (314,063), the change was +29.2%.
The series high is 318,979 in 2022 and the low is 243,097 in 1995.
Among 50 states and the District of Columbia, Idaho ranked 37th highest in 2024 on public school enrollment from the National Center for Education Statistics. California was highest at 5,897,886 and Vermont lowest at 81,398.
Among Idaho and its 6 neighboring states, Idaho ranks 5th highest; Nevada is next above at 477,563 and Montana next below at 147,208.
Historical data
Source: Idaho State Department of Education, Historical Fall Enrollment by District or Charter, and Historical Charter School Enrollment. Published .
Data table (31 rows)
| Period | Idaho (people) | Charter school enrollment (people) |
|---|---|---|
| 1995 | 243,097 | n/a |
| 1996 | 245,252 | n/a |
| 1997 | 244,403 | 38 |
| 1998 | 244,623 | 184 |
| 1999 | 245,226 | 915 |
| 2000 | 245,377 | 1,083 |
| 2001 | 246,415 | 1,478 |
| 2002 | 248,515 | 3,058 |
| 2003 | 252,037 | 4,767 |
| 2004 | 256,004 | 5,975 |
| 2005 | 261,907 | 8,003 |
| 2006 | 267,533 | 9,543 |
| 2007 | 272,041 | 10,768 |
| 2008 | 275,075 | 11,959 |
| 2009 | 278,522 | 14,611 |
| 2010 | 281,612 | 16,084 |
| 2011 | 281,772 | 17,808 |
| 2012 | 287,247 | 18,781.5 |
| 2013 | 289,063 | 19,366.5 |
| 2014 | 291,022 | 19,700.38 |
| 2015 | 294,471 | 20,340 |
| 2016 | 298,787 | 21,351 |
| 2017 | 302,469 | 21,936 |
| 2018 | 307,228 | 24,004 |
| 2019 | 311,991 | 25,364 |
| 2020 | 310,653 | 31,576 |
| 2021 | 316,159 | 29,204 |
| 2022 | 318,979 | 29,760 |
| 2023 | 318,660 | 32,282 |
| 2024 | 318,067 | 42,562 |
| 2025 | 314,063 | 42,942 |
Compared with other states
Every state is compared on public school enrollment from the National Center for Education Statistics: NCES-reported fall public elementary and secondary school enrollment (CCD state-reported membership) for the nation and every state, at each year Digest of Education Statistics table 203.20 prints across its d24 and d25 editions (fall 1990, 2000, 2010 through 2024).
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics, Tables 208.40, 203.20, 304.10, and 211.60. Data period 2024. Published .
The first 10 of 52 rows; the full table is below.
| State | 2024 |
|---|---|
| 1. United States | 49,387,403 |
| 2. California | 5,897,886 |
| 3. Texas | 5,545,640 |
| 4. Florida | 2,859,600 |
| 5. New York | 2,527,258 |
| 6. Illinois | 1,842,881 |
| 7. Georgia | 1,744,662 |
| 8. Pennsylvania | 1,691,456 |
| 9. Ohio | 1,665,566 |
| 10. North Carolina | 1,555,418 |
Data table (52 rows)
| State | 2024 |
|---|---|
| 1. United States | 49,387,403 |
| 2. California | 5,897,886 |
| 3. Texas | 5,545,640 |
| 4. Florida | 2,859,600 |
| 5. New York | 2,527,258 |
| 6. Illinois | 1,842,881 |
| 7. Georgia | 1,744,662 |
| 8. Pennsylvania | 1,691,456 |
| 9. Ohio | 1,665,566 |
| 10. North Carolina | 1,555,418 |
| 11. Michigan | 1,423,933 |
| 12. New Jersey | 1,394,971 |
| 13. Virginia | 1,257,315 |
| 14. Arizona | 1,103,894 |
| 15. Washington | 1,094,502 |
| 16. Indiana | 1,040,190 |
| 17. Tennessee | 1,003,622 |
| 18. Massachusetts | 915,932 |
| 19. Maryland | 891,525 |
| 20. Missouri | 889,059 |
| 21. Minnesota | 876,182 |
| 22. Colorado | 865,077 |
| 23. Wisconsin | 806,065 |
| 24. South Carolina | 796,780 |
| 25. Alabama | 751,060 |
| 26. Oklahoma | 697,358 |
| 27. Utah | 684,604 |
| 28. Louisiana | 666,840 |
| 29. Kentucky | 657,263 |
| 30. Oregon | 570,233 |
| 31. Connecticut | 508,402 |
| 32. Iowa | 504,292 |
| 33. Arkansas | 491,239 |
| 34. Kansas | 481,626 |
| 35. Nevada | 477,563 |
| 36. Mississippi | 431,864 |
| 37. Nebraska | 330,622 |
| 38. Idaho | 315,626 |
| 39. New Mexico | 307,110 |
| 40. West Virginia | 242,155 |
| 41. Maine | 167,309 |
| 42. Hawaii | 167,071 |
| 43. New Hampshire | 164,153 |
| 44. Montana | 147,208 |
| 45. Delaware | 142,156 |
| 46. South Dakota | 141,065 |
| 47. Rhode Island | 135,978 |
| 48. Alaska | 129,876 |
| 49. North Dakota | 119,792 |
| 50. District of Columbia | 94,211 |
| 51. Wyoming | 89,915 |
| 52. Vermont | 81,398 |
Source
- Organization
- Idaho State Department of Education
- Dataset
- Historical Fall Enrollment by District or Charter, and Historical Charter School Enrollment
- Geography
- Idaho (statewide)
- Time coverage
- 1995-2025 (public_school_enrollment), 1997-2025 (charter_enrollment), 1995-2025 (enrollment_by_district)
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Published
- Original file
- https://www.sde.idaho.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/Historical-Enrollment-by-District-or-Charter.xlsx
- Methodology
- https://www.sde.idaho.gov/finance-transparency/public-school-finance/
- License
- Public domain. State of Idaho government work.
- Our copy
- Historical Fall Enrollment by District or Charter, and Historical Charter School Enrollment, built by
scripts/fetch-sde-enrollment.py
Caveats
- Membership counts enrollment as of the first day of October, or the nearest prior school day; a student enrolled in two LEAs is counted in each.
- Charter enrollment is already included in the statewide total, which is the sum of every district and charter LEA's membership.
- Period is the calendar year the school year begins in; period 2024 is school year 2024-25.
- No district-to-county crosswalk exists in SDE's workbooks, so only statewide totals are published here.
- Category is the LEA name as SDE prints it in each year, not normalized or merged across years even when an LEA was renamed.
- Charter totals for 2012-13 (18,781.5), 2013-14 (19,366.5) and 2014-15 (19,700.38) carry a fractional count, from a school counted at partial-year FTE; kept as printed.
Where sources disagree
- Public school enrollment, Idaho, 2022: nces publishes 317,555. NCES Digest of Education Statistics table 208.40 (fall 2022 state enrollment, from the CCD State Nonfiscal survey) reports 317,555 for Idaho, versus SDE's own fall 2022 membership count of 318,979 used for education.public_school_enrollment. Idaho's SDE count is the state's fall LEA membership; NCES's CCD figure is the state-reported total NCES compiles for that survey year and can differ slightly in scope or count date.
State comparison:
- Organization
- National Center for Education Statistics
- Dataset
- Digest of Education Statistics, Tables 208.40, 203.20, 304.10, and 211.60
- Geography
- Nation and every state (50 states plus the District of Columbia)
- Time coverage
- 2022 (student_teacher_ratio); 1990-2024 selected years (public_school_enrollment_nces); 1970-2022 selected years (higher_ed_enrollment_nces); 1969-2021 selected school years (teacher_avg_salary_nces)
- Update frequency
- Annual
- Published
- Original file
- https://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d25/tables/xls/tabn203.20.xlsx
- Methodology
- https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/
- License
- Public domain. U.S. federal government work.
- Our copy
- Digest of Education Statistics, Tables 208.40, 203.20, 304.10, and 211.60, built by
scripts/fetch-nces-digest.py
Caveats
- The pupil/teacher ratio counts teachers of students with disabilities and other special education staff, so it runs higher than a classroom class-size figure.
- Public school enrollment (table 203.20) is fall Common Core of Data state-reported membership, a different count and date than SDE's own fall LEA figure.
- Higher education enrollment (table 304.10) counts every public, private nonprofit and for-profit degree-granting institution in a state, not just Idaho's public institutions that OSBE counts.
- Tables 208.40 and 304.10 run through fall 2022, the newest edition of each; table 211.60 runs through school year 2021-22, its newest edition.
- NCES's state teacher salaries (table 211.60) are National Education Association estimates of average classroom teacher salary, which differ in definition from SDE's certificated-staff average used for Idaho's own figure (education.teacher_avg_salary, dataset sde-staff).
Where sources disagree
- Public school enrollment (NCES), Idaho, 2024: idaho-sde publishes 318,067. NCES Digest of Education Statistics table 203.20 (fall 2024 CCD state-reported enrollment) gives 315,626 for Idaho, versus the Idaho State Department of Education's own fall 2024 fall LEA membership count of 318,067 used for education.public_school_enrollment (dataset sde-enrollment). NCES compiles the CCD figure from state-reported totals for its own national survey; SDE's figure is Idaho's own fall membership count and count date.
- Postsecondary enrollment (NCES), Idaho, 2022: idaho-osbe publishes 78,601. NCES Digest of Education Statistics table 304.10 (fall 2022 IPEDS enrollment) gives 125,249 for Idaho, versus the Idaho State Board of Education's own fall 2022 headcount of 78,601 used for education.higher_ed_enrollment (dataset osbe-factbook). NCES's IPEDS-based figure counts every public, private nonprofit, and for-profit degree-granting institution in Idaho; OSBE's figure counts headcount at Idaho's public four-year institutions and community colleges only.
- Average teacher salary (NCES), Idaho, 2021: idaho-sde publishes 54,231.6. NCES table 211.60 gives $54,232 for school year 2021-22, an NEA estimate of average classroom teacher salary; SDE's figure is its own payroll average for the teacher activity, a different definition.
Cite
Cite this page as Understand Idaho, “Idaho public school enrollment”, https://understandidaho.com/education/enrollment/, retrieved on the date you read it, and the publisher named above for the figures themselves. The dataset behind it is described in the data catalog.
This page was last updated .