SLED Contracting Statistics 2026: State, Local, and Education Procurement Numbers
The state, local, and education (SLED) market is a large, fragmented procurement opportunity. Federal contracting gets the headlines and trade-press coverage, while SLED purchasing is distributed across states, education systems, and 91,438 local governments. For many small and mid-sized contractors, that fragmentation creates opportunities outside the federal market.
This report compiles frequently cited 2024–2026 statistics on SLED procurement. It prioritizes government and association reports, identifies third-party estimates and forecasts, and avoids treating unlike expenditure measures as one official market total.
If you are new to this market, start with our overview of what SLED means in sales and procurement and our SLED contracts guide. For the federal companion to this analysis, see our government contracting statistics report.
Quick Answer
No government source publishes a single SLED procurement total. The widely cited $1.5 trillion+ figure is an industry composite estimate. Separately measured figures include NASBO's $3.064 trillion estimate for total state spending in fiscal 2024, the Census Bureau's 91,438 local governments in 2025, NCES's $869.6 billion in K-12 current expenditures for fiscal 2024, and Gartner's forecast that U.S. state and local enterprise IT spending will reach $125.4 billion by 2026. These measures overlap and should not be added together.
The Most-Cited Stats (At-a-Glance Summary)
These are the single-sentence statistics most likely to be quoted by journalists, analysts, and industry writers. Each figure is linked to its source and labeled when it is an estimate, forecast, or organization-reported metric.
- NASBO estimated total state government spending at $3.064 trillion in fiscal 2024, up 6.2% year over year (NASBO 2024 State Expenditure Report).
- State general fund spending totaled $1.13 trillion in fiscal 2023; preliminary fiscal 2024 spending and enacted fiscal 2025 budgets were each about $1.26 trillion (NASBO Fall 2024 Fiscal Survey of States).
- The United States had 91,438 local governments in 2025, including 3,031 counties, 19,489 municipalities, 16,184 townships, 40,199 special districts, and 12,535 independent school districts (U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 and 2025 Government Organization Summary).
- U.S. K-12 public schools recorded $869.6 billion in current expenditures in fiscal 2024, up 2.9% from $845.1B in fiscal 2023 after adjusting for inflation (NCES, April 2026).
- Sourcewell reported $5.85 billion in fiscal-year-to-date 2024–25 contract sales as of November 30, 2024, 15.5% above the prior-year comparison (Sourcewell November 2024 Financial Summary).
- OMNIA Partners says it manages over $30 billion in spend annually through its contract portfolio (OMNIA Partners).
- Gartner forecast U.S. state and local government enterprise IT spending would reach $125.4 billion by 2026 (Gartner U.S. State and Local Government Overview, 2024).
- NASCIO reported that employees in 82% of state CIO organizations used GenAI tools in daily work in 2025, up from 53% in 2024 (NASCIO 2026 Agentic AI Report).
- U.S. higher education endowments collectively spent $33.4 billion in FY25, with student financial aid the largest category (NACUBO-Commonfund Study, 2026).
Total SLED Market Size
There is no single official source that publishes a unified "SLED procurement total" the way USAspending.gov does for federal contracts. The commonly cited $1.5 trillion+ figure is an industry composite, not a statistic published by NASBO, the Census Bureau, NCES, or NASPO.
| Published measure | Figure | Scope |
|---|---|---|
| Total state spending, fiscal 2024 | $3.064T estimated | All state expenditures, including costs that are not procurement (NASBO) |
| K-12 current expenditures, fiscal 2024 | $869.6B | Public elementary and secondary current expenditures, not procurement alone (NCES) |
| Local governments, 2025 | 91,438 entities | Count of governments, not spending (Census Bureau) |
Total expenditure figures include salaries, benefits, transfer payments, debt service, and other costs that cannot be treated as addressable contract spending. Because no current authoritative source publishes a consistent procurement share across every SLED segment, this report treats $1.5 trillion+ as a directional industry estimate and does not use it to claim that SLED is a precise multiple of federal contracting. See how to find government contracts for the practical distinction between the markets.
State Government Procurement
NASBO estimated total state spending at $3.064 trillion in fiscal 2024, up 6.2% year over year, in its 2024 State Expenditure Report. General fund spending was an actual $1.13 trillion in FY23; preliminary fiscal 2024 spending and enacted fiscal 2025 budgets were each about $1.26 trillion, according to the NASBO Fall 2024 Fiscal Survey of States.
Top state expenditure categories (FY24, all funds, NASBO):
| Category | Approximate Share of Total State Spending |
|---|---|
| Medicaid | ~30% |
| Elementary and secondary education | ~19% |
| Higher education | ~10% |
| Transportation | ~8% |
| Corrections | ~3% |
| All other (incl. IT, public safety, environment) | ~30% |
Procurement governance. Nearly three-fourths of states have a central procurement office with statutory purchasing authority across all areas of procurement within the state, according to NIGP (NIGP, The Impact of Public Procurement). At least 45 states plus D.C. operate procurement preference policies, for in-state vendors, veteran-owned businesses, women- or minority-owned firms, or environmentally sustainable manufacturers.
State procurement priorities. NASPO's 2024 Top 10 Priorities for State Procurement listed Modernizing the Procurement Process as the #1 priority, reflecting an industry-wide shift toward electronic sourcing, supplier portals, and AI-assisted bid evaluation (NASPO 2024 Priorities).
Local Government Procurement
The local government tier is the most fragmented part of SLED. The U.S. Census Bureau's 2022 and 2025 Government Organization Summary counted 91,438 local governments in 2025:
| Local Government Type | Count (2025) |
|---|---|
| Counties | 3,031 |
| Municipalities (cities) | 19,489 |
| Townships | 16,184 |
| Special districts | 40,199 |
| Independent school districts | 12,535 |
| Total | 91,438 |
Counties alone "invest nearly $743 billion each year" through 40,000 elected officials and 3.6 million county employees, according to the National Association of Counties. NACo also reports that municipal bonds have funded more than $3.3 trillion in infrastructure investments over the past decade, indicating substantial local infrastructure activity without measuring procurement volume directly.
Special districts deserve specific attention. With 40,199 entities in 2025, water districts, transit authorities, fire districts, library districts, port authorities, and more represent the largest single category of local government and operate under their own procurement rules.
K-12 Education Procurement
K-12 public schools are the single largest sub-segment of the education side of SLED. According to NCES, current expenditures for U.S. public elementary and secondary education totaled $869.6 billion in FY 2024, up 2.9% from $845.1B in FY 2023 after adjusting for inflation (NCES, April 2026). Current expenditures include salaries, benefits, supplies, and purchased services, but exclude capital outlays and debt interest; they are not a procurement-only measure.
District structure. There are 13,318 regular school districts in the U.S. as of 2022–23 (NCES Common Core of Data). Each is a separate procurement entity with its own RFPs, board approvals, and vendor lists.
K-12 EdTech spending. The North American K-12 EdTech market reached approximately $28.1 billion in 2023, with global K-12 technology spend forecast to grow at 24%+ CAGR through 2032 (K-12 Dive, 2024). Cybersecurity has moved from a peripheral concern to a top-three procurement priority for districts, driven by ransomware attacks on districts in nearly every state since 2022.
Top K-12 procurement categories (EdWeek Market Brief, 2024):
| Category | Notes |
|---|---|
| Core ELA and math curricula | 78–80% of buyers report long-term commitment |
| Devices (Chromebooks, laptops, tablets) | Average 1.5 devices per student in 2023 |
| Cybersecurity and identity management | Embedded into most learning-platform RFPs |
| Social-emotional learning | Sustained post-COVID demand |
| Transportation (buses) | Largest infrastructure-related line item |
For a deeper look at how districts buy, see EdWeek Market Brief's School Districts' Top Purchasing Priorities for 2024-25.
Higher Education Procurement
Higher-education expenditure datasets include salaries, benefits, grants, and other non-procurement expenses. Because they do not provide a current, directly comparable procurement-only total, this report does not use them to estimate addressable contract spending.
Endowment spending. The most recent NACUBO-Commonfund Study reports that participating U.S. higher education endowments spent a collective $33.4 billion in FY25, up from $30 billion in FY24 and $28.4 billion in FY23 (NACUBO 2026).
Where endowment dollars go (FY23 NACUBO-Commonfund Study):
| Spending Category | Share of Endowment Distributions |
|---|---|
| Student financial aid | 47.7% |
| Academic programs and research | 17.5% |
| Endowed faculty positions | 11.1% |
| Operations and facilities | 7.4% |
| All other purposes | 16.4% |
Procurement opportunity in higher ed concentrates in research equipment, IT and cloud infrastructure, facilities operations and maintenance, food service, and managed print/copy contracts. Higher-ed institutions are also some of the heaviest users of cooperative purchasing, see the next section.
Cooperative Purchasing Volume
Cooperative purchasing has quietly become one of the most important channels in SLED. A single competitively awarded cooperative contract can be used by tens of thousands of public agencies nationwide, dramatically reducing both buyer and seller transaction costs. Prominent national cooperatives include Sourcewell, OMNIA Partners, and NASPO ValuePoint.
| Cooperative | Reported Volume | Eligible Agencies | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sourcewell | $5.85B fiscal-year-to-date contract sales as of Nov. 30, 2024 | 50,000+ | Sourcewell Nov 2024 Financial Summary |
| OMNIA Partners | Organization-reported $30B+ in managed annual spend | 90,000+ | OMNIA Partners |
| NASPO ValuePoint | Aggregates 50 states + territories | All 50 states + subdivisions | NASPO ValuePoint |
Sourcewell reported fiscal-year-to-date contract sales 15.5% above the comparable prior-year period, from $5.06B to $5.85B as of November 30, 2024; administrative-fee revenue was 16.8% higher at $52.1M. Cooperatives can reduce the need for smaller agencies to run separate RFPs. For vendors looking to plug into this channel, see our cooperative purchasing vendor guide.
Small Business Participation in SLED Contracts
Small business participation in SLED is harder to measure than at the federal level: there is no SBA-style scorecard tracking participation across the country's state, education, and 91,438 local-government entities. The picture instead comes from disparity studies, which states and cities commission to evaluate participation and support procurement policy.
Findings from recent disparity studies:
- Delaware (2022): Women-owned businesses received less than 3% of total state contracting dollars from 2015–2020. Firms owned by people of color received less than 7% in the same period (2022 Delaware Disparity Study).
- Boston: Minority-owned firms were potentially available for 11.3% of subcontracting dollars but received only 5.5% between 2014–2019 (Urban Institute synthesis).
- Hamilton County, OH: Minority-owned firms were potentially available for ~16% of contracting dollars but received less than 4% in the most recent study (Urban Institute).
The Urban Institute's framing of the broader market: with state and local government procurement exceeding $1 trillion each year, removing barriers to small and minority-owned business participation could materially shift economic outcomes in thousands of communities. At least 45 states plus D.C. have procurement preference policies in place, according to NIGP, but utilization gaps remain wide.
For a starting point on which contracts are most accessible to smaller firms, see our guide to the easiest SLED contracts to win.
SLED IT and Technology Spending
State and local IT is the most contractor-relevant SLED segment, and it is the one with the cleanest forecast data. Gartner's U.S. State and Local Government Overview forecast that U.S. state and local government enterprise IT spending would reach $125.4 billion by 2026.
The composition of that spend is being reshaped by AI, cloud, and cybersecurity. From the NASCIO 2025 State CIO Survey (full PDF):
| NASCIO 2025 Finding | Number |
|---|---|
| State CIOs receiving an FY26 budget increase | 50% |
| CIO organizations whose employees use GenAI in daily work | 82% (up from 53% in 2024) |
| States running GenAI pilot projects | 90% |
| States with a sandbox for AI testing | 51% |
| States with dedicated AI funding | 25% |
Cybersecurity remains the #1 state CIO priority for the second consecutive year. The 2024 Deloitte-NASCIO Cybersecurity Study found that 86% of state CISOs say their responsibilities are growing, while four state IT budgets allocate less than 1% to cybersecurity and nearly 40% of CISOs say funding falls short of what they need.
For IT vendors, the takeaway is that demand is outpacing budget, which means competitive RFPs but real, structural opportunity. See our analysis of government contracts for IT companies for the practical playbook.
Trends to Watch in 2026
Five forward-looking observations grounded in the data above:
1. Infrastructure funding is still moving through state and local channels. The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act made $711.8 billion available for grants to tribes, states, localities, and territories. Of the $580.6B available for obligation through fiscal 2025, agencies had obligated $275.1B and outlaid $119.4B as of December 31, 2024 (U.S. GAO, 2025). The resulting $155.7B gap between obligations and outlays indicates awarded work that had not yet been paid out; it is not a forecast that all of that amount will become new RFPs.
2. Broadband remains a state-administered procurement channel. The $42.45 billion BEAD program is administered by states and territories, which award subgrants to ISPs and infrastructure vendors (NTIA BEAD Program).
3. Generative AI is moving beyond pilots. NASCIO reported employees using GenAI in daily work in 82% of state CIO organizations, while 25% had dedicated funding. That gap suggests adoption is ahead of formal budgeting, but the survey does not quantify future AI-services RFP volume.
4. Cybersecurity gets its own line item. More than half of states now have a dedicated cybersecurity budget line, but the 2024 Deloitte-NASCIO study shows persistent under-funding. State legislatures are increasingly forcing the issue, particularly after K-12 ransomware attacks. Expect SLED cybersecurity spending growth to outpace overall IT growth through 2026.
5. Cooperative purchasing continues to grow. Sourcewell's fiscal-year-to-date sales were 15.5% above the prior-year comparison, while OMNIA reports more than $30B in annual managed spend. Those organization-reported figures show the scale of pre-competed contracts, though they do not establish how much share cooperatives have gained across the entire SLED market.
Frequently Asked Questions
How big is the SLED market in 2026?
No authoritative source publishes a unified SLED procurement total. The frequently cited $1.5 trillion+ figure is an industry composite estimate assembled from overlapping expenditure datasets and procurement-share assumptions. Use it as a directional market estimate, not an official government statistic or a precise comparison with federal contracting.
How many local governments are there in the United States?
The U.S. Census Bureau counted 91,438 local governments in 2025: 3,031 counties, 19,489 municipalities, 16,184 townships, 40,199 special districts, and 12,535 independent school districts. These are independent governmental units; their purchasing authority and processes vary.
How much do K-12 public schools spend per year?
NCES reported $869.6 billion in current expenditures for FY 2024. That figure includes salaries, benefits, supplies, and purchased services, while excluding capital outlays and debt interest; NCES does not publish a directly comparable national procurement-only total.
What is cooperative purchasing in government contracting?
Cooperative purchasing lets public agencies buy from a competitively awarded contract instead of running separate RFPs. Sourcewell reported $5.85 billion in fiscal-year-to-date contract sales as of November 30, 2024, OMNIA Partners reports managing over $30 billion in annual spend, and NASPO ValuePoint aggregates contracts for all 50 states. See our cooperative purchasing vendor guide for how the channel works.
How much do state and local governments spend on IT?
Gartner forecast that U.S. state and local government enterprise IT spending would reach $125.4 billion by 2026. NASCIO reported that employees in 82% of state CIO organizations used generative AI tools in daily work in 2025, up from 53% in 2024. For the vendor playbook, see our guide to government contracts for IT companies.
Methodology and Sources
Figures in this report were reviewed through August 2026. Government and association data are preferred; third-party estimates, forecasts, and organization-reported sales or spend are labeled as such. Measures from different scopes or fiscal years are not added together.
The $1.5T+ "SLED procurement" figure is retained only as a widely cited industry estimate. No current primary source reviewed for this report publishes the figure or a uniform procurement-addressable share that reproduces it across state, local, K-12, and higher-education spending.
Sources cited:
- NASBO 2024 State Expenditure Report, PDF
- NASBO Fall 2024 Fiscal Survey of States, PDF
- U.S. Census Bureau, 2022 and 2025 Government Organization Summary, census.gov
- U.S. Census Bureau, Annual Survey of State and Local Government Finances (ALFIN), census.gov
- NCES, Revenues and Expenditures for Public Elementary and Secondary Education, FY2024, NCES First Look, April 2026
- NCES Common Core of Data, nces.ed.gov/ccd
- NACUBO-Commonfund Study of Endowments (FY25), NACUBO press release, 2026
- NASCIO 2025 State CIO Survey: Leading Change Through Uncertain Times, PDF
- NASCIO, The Rise of Agentic AI in State Government (2026), PDF
- 2024 Deloitte-NASCIO Cybersecurity Study, nascio.org
- Gartner, U.S. State and Local Government Overview (2024), gartner.com
- NASPO 2024 Top 10 Priorities for State Procurement, naspo.org
- NIGP, The Impact of Public Procurement, nigp.org
- National Association of Counties (NACo), naco.org
- Sourcewell November 2024 Financial Summary, sourcewell-mn.gov
- OMNIA Partners, Cooperative Purchasing Best Practices, omniapartners.com
- NASPO ValuePoint, naspovaluepoint.org
- U.S. GAO, Infrastructure Grants Status (2025), gao.gov
- NTIA Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment Program, ntia.gov
- EdWeek Market Brief, School Districts' Top Purchasing Priorities for 2024-25, marketbrief.edweek.org
- Urban Institute, Removing Barriers to Participation in Local and State Government Procurement, urban.org
- Delaware 2022 Disparity Study, Delaware Marketplace
- K-12 Dive, Ed-Tech Spending Forecast, k12dive.com
If you are evaluating whether SLED contracting is right for your business, the federal-side companion to this report covers the SAM.gov funnel and federal competition data. For the practical "what do I do next" version of this analysis, see SLED.AI's contracting platform, which is where these numbers turn into a pipeline.
Last updated: August 2026.
