Skip to content
ZipNumbers

Wake County · North Carolina

Raleigh, NC public schools

Enrollment, school count, staffing and per-pupil spending for Wake County Schools — federal education data, not a star rating.

Yellow public school bus parked at dusk, illustrating local school district data

Quick answer

Wake County Schools is the primary public district for Raleigh, NC. It enrolls 159,778 students in 197 schools with 10,663 full-time-equivalent teachers, and spends $11,914 per pupil, 31% below the $17,320 median across the metros covered here.

Students enrolled
159,778NCES Common Core of Data, 2021-22
Schools in the district
197Operating school count
Students per teacher
15Enrollment ÷ FTE teachers, not class size
Spending per pupil
$11,914Total current expenditure, FY2020

Who pays for schools in Raleigh

Where the district's money comes from, FY2020.

Local revenue
32%
$547,172,000
State revenue
60.6%
$1,036,757,000
Federal revenue
7.4%
$125,922,000

Local revenue is mostly property tax, which is why the Raleigh property tax rate and school funding move together. Of every dollar spent, about 56 cents reaches instruction — teacher salaries, benefits and classroom materials — with the rest covering transport, buildings, food service and administration.

Reading the Raleigh numbers

What the 2021-22 NCES and FY2020 Census finance numbers say about this district.

This is a low-spending district: $11,914 per pupil, 31% under the $17,320 median and near the bottom of the metros tracked here. Instruction takes 56 cents of each dollar — $6,701 per student — with the remainder on transport, buildings, food service and administration.

The state carries this district: 60.6% of revenue arrives from NC state aid and only 32% is raised locally. Budget swings here follow state formula changes, not local property values. Federal aid is a small 7.4% of the total, so national funding changes have limited effect on this budget.

159,778 students across 197 schools averages 811 students per building, and the district is larger than the typical district covered here (44,998 students). The 15:1 student-to-teacher ratio is ordinary for this set of districts (median 15.2:1). It counts all FTE teachers district-wide, so actual class sizes run higher.

What this data covers

Read this before comparing districts.

Wake County Schools is a county-scale district, so its catchment reaches well past the Raleigh city limits and these figures describe that wider area. Independently authorised charter schools, private schools and regional vocational programs are counted separately by NCES and are not in these totals. Enrollment is the 2021-22 NCES collection; dollars are the FY2020 Census F-33 survey, the latest complete national release. The two years differ, so per-pupil spending is a stable indicator rather than a live budget line.

Other Raleigh datasets on this site.

Statewide: North Carolina cities · North Carolina ZIP codes · North Carolina sales tax · North Carolina counties

Source: NCES Common Core of Data + Census F-33, via Urban Institute Education Data · rates as published for 2021-22 / FY2020

NCES LEAID 3704720. Finance figures are Census Annual Survey of School System Finances (F-33) totals as redistributed by the Urban Institute Education Data API.