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What is the local spending on Education?

In FY 2025 local spending on education was “guesstimated” to be $1,192 billion.

Local Education Spending Analysis

This page shows the current trends in local education spending. There are also charts on education spending history. See here for a general history of education spending.

Recent Local Education Spending

Recent Local Education Spending

Chart S.81l: Recent Local Education Spending

In the 2010s local education spending started out at $600 billion. After 2014 local education spending steadily increased to $800 billion in 2020.

After a pause in the COVID crisis of 2020 local education spending has resumed its growth.

In 2025 local education spending was “guesstimated” at $1,192 billion.

Recent Local Education Spending<br>as Pct GDP

Chart S.82l: Recent Local Education Spending
as Pct GDP

Viewed from a GDP perspective, local education spending started declining in 2010 from 4.2 percent GDP to 3.6 percent GDP in 2014.

Since the COVID crisis of 2020 local education spending has declined to about 3.3 percent GDP.

In 2025 local education spending was “guesstimated” at 3.9 percent GDP.

See also Education Spending History.

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History:

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Local Education Spending by Level Since 1900

Local Education spending grew from one percent of GDP to nearly 4 percent GDP in the 20th century.

Education Spending since 1900 by Type

Chart S.83l: Education Spending since 1900 by Type

Over the 20th century local education spending shows a steady increase in spending from one percent of GDP to 3.5 to 4.0 percent GDP, with a big drop-off in World War II. Almost all local education spending is on pre-primary through secondary education.

Since 2010 local education spending has declined as a percent of GDP, down to 3.3 percent GDP by 2022.

Local spending on higher education began right after World War II, and reached 0.2 percent GDP in the 2010s.

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Spending Data Sources

Spending data is from official government sources.

Gross Domestic Product data comes from US Bureau of Economic Analysis and measuringworth.com.

Detailed table of spending data sources here.
Medicare breakdown here; Medicaid breakdown here.

Federal spending data begins in 1792.

State and local spending data begins in 1820.

State and local spending data for individual states begins in 1957.

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Gross Federal Debt

Debt Now:  $38,380,536,147,996.03
Debt 2/2020:$23,409,959,150,243.63

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Data Sources for 2021_2031:

Sources for 2021:

GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
'Guesstimated' by projecting the latest change in reported spending forward to future years

Sources for 2031:

GDP, GO: GDP, GO Sources
Federal: Fed. Budget: Hist. Tables 3.2, 5.1, 7.1
State and Local: State and Local Gov. Finances
'Guesstimated' by projecting the latest change in reported spending forward to future years

> data sources for other years
> data update schedule.

Blog

Federal Budget for FY27 Released

On April 4, 2026, we updated usgovernmentspending.com with the numbers from the Public Budget Database in the Budget of the United States Government for Fiscal Year 2027

Here is how headline budget estimates for the upcoming FY 2027 fiscal year have changed since the release of the FY 2025 budget in Winter 2024. There were no budgetary estimates in the budget documents for the FY 2026 budget.

Federal Budget Changes for 2027
$ billionEstimate for 2027
in FY2025 Budget
Estimate for 2027
in FY2027 Budget
Change
Federal Outlays$7,696.6$8,092.9 +$569.1
Federal Receipts$6,186.2$5,921.0+$279.1
Federal Deficit$1,510.3$2,171.9+$290.0

You can see line item changes from budget to budget here. You can compare budget estimates with actuals here.

Account level spending estimates through FY 2031 come from the Outlays table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on April 4, 2026.

Account level budget authority estimates through FY 2031 come from the Budget Authority table in the Public Budget Database and were updated on usgovernmentspending.com on April 4, 2026. 

US GDP for 2025 Released
On March 15, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its GDP series with the latest data from the Bureau of Economic Analysis ...

US, State Population Update for 2025
On January 21, 2026 the US Census Bureau released its US national and state population estimates for July 1, 2025.  On February 7, 2026 usgovernmentspending.com updated its US and state popula ...

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