NCES Digest of Education Statistics: 60 Years of U.S. Educational Data

The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) provides this collection of statistical tables covering the American education system from prekindergarten through graduate school. It includes the 2022 edition and archives dating back to 2013, aggregating data from government and private surveys on enrollment, finances, and outcomes.

Use Cases

• Longitudinal analysis of 'enrollment' and 'graduation' rates to identify long-term educational trends
• Correlation of 'federal funds for education' with 'educational attainment' across different decades
• Comparative study of 'international education' metrics between the U.S. and other nations

Strengths

• Longitudinal coverage spanning 58 editions since 1962
• Includes a catalog CSV for cross-walking folder names to table titles
• Provides dedicated Machine Readable Tables (MRT) for automated analysis

Limitations

• Data is provided in nested Excel files which may require significant flattening for time-series analysis
• Aggregated nature of the data prevents student-level or granular school-level modeling

Provenance

Source

National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), U.S. Department of Education

Collection Method

Aggregated surveys and administrative data from government and private sources

Time Range

1962-2022

Freshness

Updated through the 2022 edition with files downloaded as recently as February 2026.

Geography

United States and International