Public School Diversity by State (NCES 2024-25)
The student-body diversity of US public schools ranges from a state average of 69.6 in Hawaii to 17.9 in West Virginia, against a national average of 43.5. PlainSchools ranks all 51 state systems by a Simpson diversity index computed from federal race and ethnicity data.
Research period:
Key finding
Across the 93,628 US public schools reporting race and ethnicity to the federal Common Core of Data, the average student-body diversity index is 43.5 on a 0-100 scale. But the state averages span a wide range.
Schools are most mixed on average in Hawaii, at 69.6, and least mixed in West Virginia, at 17.9. The pattern tracks each state's underlying population: more demographically varied states post higher school diversity, while more homogeneous states post lower.
Research question
How racially and ethnically mixed are public-school student bodies, and how much does that differ by state? Across all 51 state systems, what is the average school diversity, and where is it highest and lowest?
Methodology
For each school, we compute a Simpson diversity index: one minus the sum of the squared shares of the seven race and ethnicity groups the NCES Common Core of Data reports for 2024-25. The result runs from 0, where a single group makes up the entire student body, to about 86, where all seven groups are evenly represented. We then average that index across every reporting school in a state, weighting each school equally.
The index measures how evenly mixed a student body is, not whether it is good. Schools that do not report demographics are excluded, and the limitation section below explains what an index of mix can and cannot tell you. Figures are recomputed live from the database on every request, so nothing here is hand-entered.
See the methodology page for source vintage and full details.
States with the most mixed student bodies
Top 10 by average school diversity index (NCES CCD 2024-25); higher means more evenly mixed
All 51 state systems, ranked
Average school diversity index, most mixed first. Every state links to its full profile; figures update with each NCES release.
| # | State | Avg. diversity index | Schools reporting |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Hawaii | 69.6 | 295 |
| 2 | Delaware | 61.3 | 222 |
| 3 | Oklahoma | 59.6 | 1,754 |
| 4 | Nevada | 56.4 | 718 |
| 5 | North Carolina | 56.1 | 2,651 |
| 6 | Virginia | 53.7 | 1,844 |
| 7 | Washington | 53.3 | 2,402 |
| 8 | South Carolina | 52.7 | 1,183 |
| 9 | Florida | 52.3 | 3,892 |
| 10 | Maryland | 52.3 | 1,369 |
| 11 | New Jersey | 51.2 | 2,474 |
| 12 | Connecticut | 50.5 | 987 |
| 13 | Georgia | 50.0 | 2,285 |
| 14 | Massachusetts | 47.3 | 1,791 |
| 15 | Arizona | 47.2 | 2,067 |
| 16 | Colorado | 47.1 | 1,860 |
| 17 | Oregon | 47.1 | 1,264 |
| 18 | Rhode Island | 47.0 | 300 |
| 19 | California | 46.0 | 9,864 |
| 20 | New York | 45.5 | 4,763 |
| 21 | Texas | 44.7 | 8,755 |
| 22 | Louisiana | 43.9 | 1,276 |
| 23 | Alaska | 43.0 | 480 |
| 24 | Minnesota | 42.8 | 2,276 |
| 25 | Alabama | 42.5 | 1,351 |
| 26 | Mississippi | 41.1 | 837 |
| 27 | Utah | 40.9 | 1,041 |
| 28 | Arkansas | 40.4 | 1,039 |
| 29 | New Mexico | 39.8 | 855 |
| 30 | Kansas | 39.4 | 1,323 |
| 31 | Indiana | 39.0 | 1,815 |
| 32 | Illinois | 38.9 | 3,812 |
| 33 | Tennessee | 38.3 | 1,803 |
| 34 | Pennsylvania | 37.3 | 2,893 |
| 35 | Idaho | 36.3 | 760 |
| 36 | Michigan | 36.2 | 3,309 |
| 37 | Wisconsin | 35.7 | 2,142 |
| 38 | Ohio | 35.3 | 3,455 |
| 39 | Nebraska | 34.9 | 989 |
| 40 | Kentucky | 34.5 | 1,376 |
| 41 | Iowa | 33.8 | 1,286 |
| 42 | District of Columbia | 33.3 | 240 |
| 43 | Wyoming | 33.2 | 333 |
| 44 | Missouri | 31.0 | 2,285 |
| 45 | North Dakota | 29.7 | 485 |
| 46 | South Dakota | 27.6 | 665 |
| 47 | New Hampshire | 24.3 | 483 |
| 48 | Montana | 23.6 | 814 |
| 49 | Maine | 20.6 | 552 |
| 50 | Vermont | 19.5 | 283 |
| 51 | West Virginia | 17.9 | 630 |
Source: U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), 2024-25. Diversity index computed by PlainSchools from reported race/ethnicity shares. U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), 2024-25. Diversity index computed by PlainSchools from reported race/ethnicity shares.
What the data shows
School diversity mostly mirrors state population
The states whose schools are most mixed on average, led by Hawaii, tend to be those with the most demographically varied populations, while the least mixed, including West Virginia, are among the most racially homogeneous states. That makes this largely a map of where different groups live, not of any single school's choices. A diverse state can still contain very homogeneous schools, and a homogeneous state can contain a few highly mixed ones.
Mix is not the same as integration
A high diversity index means a school enrolls students from several groups, but it does not show whether those students share classes, programs, or experiences. Two schools with the same index can feel very different inside. Read this as a measure of who is enrolled, not of how a school brings its students together.
Why this matters
The makeup of a student body is one of the things families weigh when choosing a school, alongside the enrollment, staffing, and resource data on each profile. It is context, not a quality score: a school is not better or worse for being more or less mixed. Use the per-school diversity index on each school page to see where a specific campus sits relative to its state.
What this analysis cannot tell us
This is a Simpson diversity index, a standard measure of how evenly a student body is spread across racial and ethnic groups, averaged across each state's schools. It captures mix, not quality, opportunity, or integration: two schools with the same index can have very different group compositions, and a high index does not by itself mean students of different backgrounds learn together rather than in separate classes. The index uses the seven race and ethnicity categories reported to the NCES Common Core of Data for 2024-25, and schools that do not report demographics are excluded. State averages weight every reporting school equally regardless of size. Diversity is one lens on a school system, not a measure of how good its schools are.
States with the least mixed student bodies
The 10 states with the lowest average school diversity index (NCES CCD 2024-25)
Sources
- U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Common Core of Data (CCD), 2024-25: https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/
Cite this analysis
PlainSchools. (2026). Public School Diversity by State (NCES 2024-25). https://plainschools.com/research/student-diversity-by-state/