Top 10 States by Number of Schools in India (UDISE+ 2024-25)
GetSchoolsInfo13 min read3 May 2026Updated 19 July 2026
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TL;DR
India ran 14,71,473 schools in 2024-25 (UDISE+). Five states host nearly half of them. Uttar Pradesh alone accounts for 17.8% of every school in the country — 2,62,358 schools serving 4.28 crore students with 16.15 lakh teachers. Madhya Pradesh (1.22L), Maharashtra (1.08L), Rajasthan (1.06L) and Bihar (94K) follow. The smallest jurisdictions — Lakshadweep (36 schools), Chandigarh (207), Andaman & Nicobar (408) — round out the bottom of the list. This piece breaks down the full leaderboard, explains why the ranking looks the way it does, and spotlights the top 5 with concrete numbers.
Source: UDISE+ Report 2024-25, Department of School Education & Literacy, Government of India. PTR = total enrolment ÷ total teachers (rounded). Numbers cover pre-primary through Class 12 (Grades 1-12 only when comparing to GER).
And the smallest five jurisdictions
Rank
State / UT
Schools
Enrolment
PTR
32
Dadra & Nagar Haveli + Daman & Diu
433
1,46,825
28
33
Andaman & Nicobar Islands
408
71,343
12
34
Chandigarh
207
2,53,012
25
35
Lakshadweep
36
12,325
16
Note that Chandigarh has fewer schools than Dadra & Nagar Haveli but 3.5× the enrolment per school — every one of its 207 schools averages 1,222 students. That's the single highest school-density figure in the country. We'll come back to why in the section on outliers.
Why Uttar Pradesh is at the top
Three structural factors compound to put UP in a league of its own:
Population scale. UP's 0-17 cohort is roughly 7.6 crore — larger than the entire population of Germany or Türkiye. With elementary-stage GER at 90%+ and the Right to Education Act mandating a school within 1 km of every habitation, the state needs a dense lattice of schools simply to satisfy the legal floor.
Habitation dispersion. UP has 1.05 lakh inhabited villages (Census 2011 frame). Roughly 73% of UP's population is rural, and rural school siting requires more schools per pupil than urban schools because of catchment radii. The state also has the highest density of single-teacher schools after Andhra Pradesh.
Active state-board + private split. Of UP's 2,62,358 schools, 1,37,172 are government-run, 8,262 are aided, 1,04,508 are private unaided recognized, and 12,416 fall under "Others" (madrasas + unrecognised + miscellaneous). The private unaided count alone is bigger than the total school count of every state outside the top 6.
UP also illustrates a less-flattering pattern: with 4.28 crore enrolments against 16.15 lakh teachers, its PTR of 26 sits above the national average of 24, and individual districts in eastern UP run PTRs above 40. A high school count does not automatically translate to a low PTR.
Top 5 spotlights
1. Uttar Pradesh — 2,62,358 schools
17.8% of all schools in India
18.4% of all enrolment
16% of all teachers
1,37,172 government schools (52% of UP total) — the largest government school system in the country
1,04,508 private unaided schools (40% of UP total) — bigger than the total school count of Tamil Nadu
UP's 2024-25 secondary-stage GER is 64.3%, well below the national 78.7% and a clear policy gap. The state's 12,416 "Other" schools (mostly madrasas and unrecognised institutions) are also under the highest scrutiny in the country.
MP's school count is inflated by a heavy primary-school footprint: 73% of its schools are at the primary level, the result of decades of "padosi school" policy that chose proximity over consolidation. MP also has the second-highest count of single-teacher schools after Andhra Pradesh.
One of the highest aided-school counts in the country (alongside Tamil Nadu and Kerala)
The aided-school footprint in Maharashtra is a historical artefact — the state inherited a vast post-independence cooperative-education sector that was nationalised through grants-in-aid. Today these schools sit awkwardly between government and private models: state-funded teacher salaries, private management.
792,265 teachers — the largest absolute teacher workforce after UP
Rajasthan is the largest state by area in India, and its school count reflects the geographic dispersion. The state notably has zero aided schools — the aided category was effectively abolished decades ago, leaving a clean government-vs-private binary.
Bihar has the highest enrolment-per-school in this top 5 (224 students/school vs UP's 163). The state runs fewer schools than its population would predict because consolidation has been more aggressive in recent years — multiple primary schools have been merged into "neighbourhood schools" since 2018. The result: large class sizes, high PTR, and persistent secondary-stage dropout at 6.9%.
Patterns hidden in the leaderboard
School count is not a quality signal
Compare Uttar Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. UP runs 4.5× more schools but only 3.4× the enrolment. Tamil Nadu's average school is bigger, better-staffed (PTR 23 vs UP's 26), and routes to a stronger Class 12 GER (83.4% vs UP's 57.4%). More schools ≠ better outcomes.
PTR tells you more than school count
States with the lowest PTR cluster in the Northeast and the small UTs:
These are not coincidental — they reflect small populations, generous central-scheme funding (especially for hill / tribal-area schools), and lower habitation density that mathematically lowers the per-school student count.
The highest PTR states — Jharkhand (36), Bihar (30), Gujarat (30), West Bengal (29), Maharashtra (28) — share a different pattern: high population density, slow government recruitment, and overdependence on a small private sector to absorb the surplus.
"Aided" schools are a regional phenomenon
The "Govt Aided" category has effectively three centres of gravity:
State
Aided schools
% of state total
Maharashtra
24,406
22.5%
Tamil Nadu
8,254
14.2%
Uttar Pradesh
8,262
3.1%
Kerala
7,164
45.5%
Karnataka
6,905
9.2%
In Kerala, almost half of all schools are aided — a unique outcome of the state's pre-1956 missionary-school heritage. In Rajasthan, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Sikkim, aided schools have been functionally abolished and the count is in single or low triple digits.
Single-teacher schools are concentrated
Of the 14.71 lakh schools nationally, roughly 1.1 lakh are single-teacher schools. The top contributors:
Andhra Pradesh — 12,912 (21% of state schools)
Madhya Pradesh — 8,500+
Rajasthan — 7,000+
Single-teacher schools are usually small primaries serving thinly-populated habitations. They are pedagogically suboptimal — one teacher cannot effectively teach all five primary grades simultaneously — but consolidating them is politically charged because closing a village school is rarely popular.
What this means for parents looking at school admissions
If you're choosing between states for relocation purposes:
Want school choice? UP, MP, Rajasthan, Maharashtra and Karnataka have the deepest mix of government, aided and private options.
Want lower class sizes? Northeast + small UTs + Himachal Pradesh deliver PTR under 15.
Want strong public schools? Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Punjab and Delhi run the highest-performing government school systems by GER + retention.
Want a CBSE-heavy environment? Look at Delhi, Chandigarh, Haryana — central-scheme footprint plus a higher density of CBSE-affiliated private schools. See our CBSE Board India — Complete Guide.
Q1. Which Indian state has the most schools in 2024-25?
Uttar Pradesh, with 2,62,358 schools (UDISE+ 2024-25). That is more than double the second-place state (Madhya Pradesh, 1,22,120) and accounts for 17.8% of all schools in India. Within UP, 1,37,172 are government-run, 1,04,508 are private unaided, 8,262 are aided, and 12,416 are classified as "Others" (mostly madrasas and unrecognised institutions). UP's school count reflects its population scale (largest 0-17 cohort in the country) and habitation dispersion (1.05 lakh inhabited villages). Despite the count, the state's secondary GER (64.3%) and PTR (26) lag the national average.
Q2. How many schools are there in India in total?
14,71,473 schools as per the latest UDISE+ Report (2024-25). The breakdown by management: 10,13,322 government (68.9%), 79,349 government-aided (5.4%), 3,39,583 private unaided recognized (23.1%), and 39,219 "Others" (2.7%). By level: 7,30,518 primary schools, 4,34,013 upper primary, 1,42,749 secondary, and 1,64,193 higher secondary. India's school system is the largest in the world by number of institutions and second-largest by enrolment after China.
Q3. Why does Uttar Pradesh have so many schools?
Three reasons: (1) Population scale — UP's 0-17 population is ~7.6 crore, larger than the total population of any country except 11 globally. The Right to Education Act requires a school within 1 km of every habitation, so larger populations mathematically need more schools. (2) Habitation dispersion — 73% of UP's population is rural, spread across 1.05 lakh inhabited villages. Rural schools serve smaller catchments by design. (3) Active private-school market — 1,04,508 of UP's schools (40%) are private unaided, the largest private school count in the country. Combined, these factors produce the 2.62-lakh-school footprint.
Q4. Which state has the fewest schools?
Lakshadweep, with just 36 schools (UDISE+ 2024-25), serving 12,325 students. The next four smallest are Chandigarh (207 schools, 2.53 lakh students), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (408 schools, 71,343 students), Dadra & Nagar Haveli + Daman & Diu (433 schools, 1.47 lakh students), and Puducherry (763 schools, 2.41 lakh students). All five are Union Territories rather than states. Among full states, Sikkim has the smallest count at 1,245 schools — a function of its low population (~6.7 lakh) and compact geography.
Q5. Which state has the largest enrolment?
Uttar Pradesh, with 4,27,89,347 students enrolled (pre-primary through Class 12). That's 17.3% of all students in India. The next four largest enrolments: Maharashtra (2.13 cr), Bihar (2.11 cr), West Bengal (1.71 cr), and Rajasthan (1.64 cr). Note that the enrolment ranking does not perfectly mirror the school-count ranking — Bihar and West Bengal have higher enrolments per school than the national average, while Madhya Pradesh has lower (more single-teacher and small primary schools).
Q6. Which state has the best pupil-teacher ratio (PTR)?
Sikkim and Ladakh both have a PTR of 8 — roughly half the national average of 24. Mizoram (11), Andaman & Nicobar (12), Arunachal Pradesh (13), Nagaland (13) and Himachal Pradesh (14) round out the top tier. Low PTR in these areas reflects three things: small absolute populations, generous central-scheme teacher allocations for hill / tribal regions, and lower habitation density. The highest PTRs sit in Jharkhand (36), Bihar (30), Gujarat (30) and West Bengal (29) — all states where school-age population growth has outpaced teacher recruitment.
Q7. Are Kendriya Vidyalayas and Navodaya Vidyalayas counted in the state totals?
Yes. UDISE+ 2024-25 records 1,253 Kendriya Vidyalayas, 653 Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, and 252 "Other Central Government" schools — totalling 2,158 centrally-run schools. These are physically located in states and are counted in the state-wise totals as government schools (specifically, the central government subset). KVs serve 13.49 lakh students nationally, JNVs serve 2.91 lakh, and Other Central Government schools serve 1.21 lakh. See our Kendriya Vidyalaya guide for more on the central school system.
Q8. How does India's school count compare globally?
India runs the largest school system in the world by number of institutions: 14.71 lakh schools (~1.5 million). For comparison, the United States has roughly 130,000 K-12 schools, China has about 500,000, Brazil has ~180,000. India's enrolment of 24.69 crore students (Pre-Primary through Class 12) ranks second after China's school enrolment. The sheer scale is why UDISE+ takes 18 months to compile annually — every school self-reports through the District Information System for Education (DISE) portal, and state coordinators verify district-by-district before national consolidation.
Q9. Did the school count grow or shrink from last year?
It shrank slightly. UDISE+ 2023-24 recorded 14,89,915 schools; 2024-25 records 14,71,473 — a decline of about 18,442 schools (-1.2%). The decline is concentrated in primary schools that have been consolidated under "neighbourhood school" rationalisation programmes (notably in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka). Single-teacher schools and schools with under-10 enrolment are the typical merger candidates. Net new private school additions partially offset the closures, but the system overall is now in a phase of consolidation rather than expansion.
Q10. Where can I see the full UDISE+ data myself?
The official UDISE+ Report 2024-25 is published by the Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India, available at udiseplus.gov.in. The report runs to 600+ pages with detailed state, district, block and school-level data. For school-by-school exploration use the UDISE+ public dashboard or our index at getschoolsinfo.com, which surfaces every UDISE-registered school with its 11-digit UDISE code, location, enrolment, infrastructure facilities and (where mapped) board affiliation.
Sources: UDISE+ Report 2024-25 (Department of School Education & Literacy, Ministry of Education, Government of India); Census 2011 inhabited-village frame for habitation context; Right to Education Act, 2009 for school-siting norms. Numbers verified against the published UDISE+ Annexures, Tables 2.1–2.5 and 4.1.