Age of Main Instructional Buildings in U.S. Public Schools (2023–2024)

This chart shows the construction era of main instructional buildings across U.S. public schools as reported for the 2023–2024 school year. The data reveals that a significant portion of students still learn in aging facilities built before 1970, many of which were not designed to meet modern safety, accessibility, or environmental standards.

Nearly 4 in 10 school buildings (38%) were constructed before 1970, making them over 50 years old, a clear indicator of how aging infrastructure continues to define the learning environment for millions of students nationwide. *** These data were reported by 80% of public schools. 21% of public schools reported that they did not know the year when their school’s main instructional building was constructed. ***
Chart: J&Y Law Source: NCESGet the dataCreated with Datawrapper