National ranking · NCES F-33
Highest-Spending Districts
The 50 US districts with the highest per-pupil expenditure, among districts with 500 or more students, from the NCES F-33 Finance Survey.
- $47,671
- Top per-pupil spending
- 50
- Districts ranked
- 12
- States represented
Southampton Union Free School District spends $47,671 per student - #1 among 500+ enrollment districts
According to the NCES F-33 Finance Survey, PlainSchools ranks districts with 500+ students by expenditure per pupil. Southampton Union Free School District in New York leads at $47,671; the #50 cutoff is $35,550 (1.3× gap). Figures are district-wide spending, not individual school budgets.
- $47,671 top per-pupil $
- $35,550 #50 cutoff
- 1.3x top vs #50 spread
The ranking in one line
Southampton Union Free School District in New York spends $47,671 per student, 1.3 times the $35,550 it takes to make this top-50 list.
- 1.3x
- top spend vs the #50 cutoff
- $35,550
- cutoff to rank (#50)
- 1,340
- students at Southampton Union Free School District
- 3
- schools in the #1 district
The full ranking
All 50 districts, ranked by per-pupil expenditure. The shaded bar behind each value shows its magnitude. According to the NCES F-33 finance survey as of August 2026.
Methodology
Per-pupil figures are current elementary-secondary expenditure divided by fall membership from the NCES F-33 School District Finance Survey (FY 2022-23), the same derivation NCES publishes. Regional service agencies and county offices of education are excluded: they spend region-wide against a small direct enrollment, so their per-pupil figures are not comparable to community school districts. Districts must enroll 500 or more students to rank.
Every figure on PlainSchools is rendered directly from the source NCES, CRDC and F-33 federal records, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, the data changelog, or report a data error. Data current as of August 2026.