Key Takeaways
- Even with record-level increases in some states, average teacher pay has failed to keep up with inflation over the past decade.
- Adjusted for inflation, on average, teachers are making 5% less than they did 10 years ago.
- The largest one-year increases were in Oklahoma (10.5%), Idaho (9.1%), and Utah (8.9%).
$72,030
National Average Teacher Salary
3.8%
increase from the previous year
Ranking & Estimates
NEA Research collects, maintains, and analyzes data on issues and trends affecting the nation’s public education systems, their employees, and students.
This report, Rankings of the States 2024 and Estimates of School Statistics 2025, contains data primarily based on information from state departments of education.
Highlights
1
2
3
4
5
1
Enrollment and Attendance
- In fall 2023, U.S. public schools enrolled 48,979,804 students, a decrease of 0.2 percent from fall 2022.
- The largest increases occurred in the District of Columbia (2%), New Jersey (0.6%), and South Carolina (0.6%). The greatest declines were in West Virginia (-2%), New Mexico (-1.9%), and Arizona (-1.5%).
- The number of students in average daily attendance (ADA) decreased by 0.3 percent nationwide, from 45,255,348 in 2022-23 to 45,101,472 in 2023-24.
2
Classroom Teachers
- U.S. public schools employed 3,236,556 teachers in 2023-24. Texas (374,947), California (269,192), and New York (217,522) employed the most teachers, while Alaska (7,058), Wyoming (7,355), and Vermont (7,964) employed the fewest.
- The average number of students enrolled per teacher remained at 15.1 from 2022-23 to 2023-24.
- States with the highest number of students enrolled per teacher in fall 2023 were Nevada (25), Arizona (22.6), and Utah (22.1). States with the lowest student-teacher ratios in fall 2023 were Vermont (10.3), New Hampshire (10.5), and New York (11.1).
3
Teacher Salary
- The national average public school teacher salary for 2023-24 was $72,030.
- State average teacher salaries ranged from those in California ($101,084), New York ($95,615), and Massachusetts ($92,076) at the high end to Mississippi ($53,704), Florida ($54,875), and Missouri ($55,132) at the low end.
- The national average one-year change in public school teacher salaries from 2022-23 to 2023-24 was 3.8 percent. The largest one-year increases were in Oklahoma (10.5%), Idaho (9.1%), and Utah (8.9%).
4
School Revenue
- Federal funding continued to comprise a historically high share of school revenues due to the influx of federal COVID relief funds, accounting for 11.1 percent of total revenue receipts in 2023-24.
- Shares of state and local funding in 2023-24 remained at similar levels as the previous year, at 46.2 percent and 42.7 percent, respectively.
5
Expenditures per Student
- The national average per-student expenditure in 2023-24 based on fall enrollment was $16,990, a gain of 2.7 percent from $16,546 in 2022-23.
- The following had the highest per-student expenditures: New York ($31,514), Vermont ($28,697), and the District of Columbia ($27,905).
- Idaho ($9,942), Utah ($11,289), and Oklahoma ($11,311) had the lowest per-student expenditures.
Gains in Teacher Pay May Not be Enough to Ease Shortages
Despite record-level salary increases in some states, average teacher pay has failed to keep up with inflation.
Teacher Pay & Per Student Spending
NEA’s Rankings and Estimates report provides a wide array of public K-12 education statistics and includes the average teacher salary by state and nationally.
Download the Report (pdf)
