Population as a Factor 

 Population and Number of Pupils 



Presumably, the number of resident pupils increases according to 

 population. Averages appear to support this relationship. The relation- 

 ship, however, is not strong. For instance, one district with a population 

 of 423 has 128 pupils, while another district with a population of 744 

 has only 122 pupils. It seems appropriate, however, to examine population 

 and its characteristics as a factor in determining expenditure patterns. 

 Table 4 indicates that, on the average, the number of resident pupils 

 from kindergarten through grade 12 increases according to population. 

 On the other hand the range in number of pupils for each population 

 group indicates considerable overlapping. For example, the largest 

 number of pupils, K-12, among districts with a population under 500 was 

 128 while the smallest number among districts having a population 

 500 to 599 was 81. It appears that, for each increase of 500 in popula- 

 tion, there is an average increase of about 100 pupils. That is to say 

 that, in general, about twenty percent of the residents of any area is in 

 school. 



Population and Expenditures per Pupil 



A scatter diagram was prepared to indicate the variance of expend- 

 itures per pupil according to population (Figure 4 and Table 5) . The 

 extremes are found among the fifty-three districts having a population 

 under 500, in which expenditures per pupil, all grades, vary from $228 

 to $742. Eight of these fifty-three districts have higher expenditures 

 per pupil than for any district in the other population groups. Also, 

 the two lowest expenditures per pupil are found in this group. The 

 general pattern is for the range of expenditures per pupil to narrow as 

 population increases, and for the average to decline among the three 

 population groups under 1,500. According to the data in Figure 4, ex- 

 penditures per pupil decline from $445 for districts having a population 

 of 100 to a minimum of $350 for districts having a population of about 



Table 4. Relation of Population to Number of Resident Pupils (ADM). 



12 



