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What is the state spending on Education?

In FY 2025 state spending on education was “guesstimated” to be $482 billion.

State Education Spending Analysis

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

Recent State Education Spending

Recent State Education Spending

Chart S.81s: Recent State Education Spending

In the 2010s state education spending steadily rose from $200 billion to $350 billion in 2020.

Since the COVID crisis of 2020 state education spending has leveled off at about $350 billion.

In 2025 state education spending was “guesstimated” at $482 billion.

Recent State Education Spending<br>as Pct GDP

Chart S.82s: Recent State Education Spending
as Pct GDP

Viewed from a GDP perspective, state education spending was pretty steady at 1.6 to 1.7 percent of GDP during the 2010s.

Since the COVID crisis of 2020 state education spending has declined to about 1.3 percent GDP.

In 2025 state education spending was “guesstimated” at 1.6 percent GDP.

See also Education Spending History.

Numbers — Charts:

History:

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State Education Spending by Level Since 1900

State Education spending grew from 0.1 percent of GDP to 1.5 percent GDP at the end of the 20th century.

Education Spending since 1900 by Level

Chart S.83s: Education Spending since 1900 by Level

State spending on education has been almost entirely for higher education, post secondary school. In 1900 state education spending was 0.1 percent GDP and increased exponentially, with a break for World War II, to 1.1 percent GDP in 1967.

From 1970 to 2000 state education spending stayed at around 1.25 percent GDP, one percent GDP for higher education. But the 2000s saw an increase to over 1.5 percent GDP and a flip up to 1.7 percent GDP in the aftermath of the 2008-09 recession.

In the 2010s state education spending declined modestly to 1.6 percent GDP, with higher education spending declining below 1.25 percent GDP.

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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_2029:

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 2029:

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.

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Medicaid Update for FY2024

On January 14, 2026, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published its annual report on National Health Expenditures and its NHE Tables includes data on Medicaid from 1960 to 2023. On January 15, 2026, usgovernmentspending.com updated its Medicaid data.

Item2024
Estimate
2024
Actual
Federal Medicaid$567.2 bn$567.2 bn 
State Medicaid (net)$124.4 bn$253.2 bn 
Total Medicaid$691.6 bn$820.4 bn 

The federal Medicaid number comes from the Federal Budget Subfunction 558: Grants to states for Medicaid. The state contribution comes from the NHE Tables.

usgovernmentspending.com publishes "guesstimates" of state and local spending from the latest year published by the Census Bureau (currently FY 2023) to the last year in the Historical Tables of the federal budget. (currently 2029 from the FY25 budget). So we have developed "guesstimates" of Medicaid spending going out to 2029, assuming that the overall Medicaid spending increases at the same rate as the federal "Grants to States for Medicaid" increases.

National Health Expenditure data is updated each year in mid December. 

CBO Long Term Budget Outlook for 2025
On March 27, 2025 the Congressional Budget Office released its annual Long Term Budget Outlook for 2025, which projects federal spendin ...

State FY25 Taxes Update
On November 22, 2025 usgovernmentspending.com updated FY2025 state revenue with quarterly tax data released by the US Ce ...

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