Wisconsin public schools welcomed 58,307 eighth-grade students in the 2024-25 school year, according to the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction.
That’s 1.4% lower than the previous school year, when 59,154 students were enrolled.
Data shows that the 12th-grade had the highest student enrollment at the time, with 67,049 students enrolled. Meanwhile, 4-year-old kindergarten had the lowest number of students, with 42,720 pupils.
Overall, there were 801,207 students enrolled in Wisconsin in the 2024-25 school year. Statewide, Milwaukee County ranked first in enrollment numbers, with 99,885 students enrolled in its schools, while Florence County ranked last in enrollment numbers, with only 326 students in the 2024-25 school year.
Wisconsin ranks 22nd in the U.S. for public education spending, with an annual expenditure of over $16,500 per pupil, totaling $13.8 billion.
According to the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) 2024 Mathematics Snapshot Report for Wisconsin Grade 8, there remains a significant achievement gap between ethnic groups in Wisconsin. White students outperformed Black students by an average of 50 points, and Hispanic students scored on average 32 points lower than their white peers.
