School districts with largest total populations

March 27, 2018
The overall population of districts coincides, for the most part, with student enrollment.

New York City, the nation's most populous city, is also home to the nation's largest public school district.

Those two facts come as no surprise, but the overall population of a district does not always match up with the the number of students enrolled in the school system, according to figures from the U.S. Census.

For instance, the Philadelphia district, with more than 1.5 million residents in 2016, has the seventh-highest population among school systems, but its student enrollment of about 134,000 in 2015-16 makes it the 17th-largest district, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

The Chicago school system has the third-largest enrollment among districts, just ahead of Miami-Dade County, but Census estimates show Dade County's  overall population surpasses the Chicago district.

Here are the 10 public school district with the largest overall populations, according to the Census Bureau's Small Area Income and Poverty Estimates.

About the Author

Mike Kennedy | Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy, senior editor, has written for AS&U on a wide range of educational issues since 1999.

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