District superintendents across the country are younger and less experienced, but they intend to stick out the turbulence and challenges that come with the job, according to a new survey from AASA, The School Superintendents Association.
The report, 2024–25 AASA Superintendent Salary & Benefits Study, is used to gauge school district leadership compensation and benefits. Based on 2,077 responses from superintendents in 49 states, the study includes findings related to demographics and more.
The median age was 52, as it was in AASA’s 2022–23 study. The latest numbers show about half of superintendents are between 51–60 years of age (51.6 percent), down from 53 percent in 2022–23. This trend was seen among all age groups to some extent.
Compared to 2022–23 findings, superintendents in 2024–25 were increasingly younger. For instance, none of those surveyed in 2023 were 30 or younger, but 0.1 percent were in 2025. The same was true of those aged 31–40 (up to 3.5 percent in 2025 from 3.2 percent in 2023); and those aged 41–50 (34.4 percent in 2025 compared to 31.5 percent in 2023).
Those aged 70 and older also increased, accounting for 0.7 percent in 2023 and almost 0.9 percent in 2025. Meanwhile, the number of those aged 61–70 decreased from 10 percent in 2023 to 9 percent in 2025.
Researchers also found that while superintendent salaries have increased over the last decade, like many careers, they have not kept pace with inflation. The mean salary reported for the 2013 sample was $131,171 and the median was $123,775, but when adjusted for inflation, “the mean real wage for superintendents in 2013, using 2024 dollars, would be $175,679, which is $6,336 above this year’s reported mean salary,” according to the report. “The inflation adjusted median salary from 2013 would be $165,773 today, which is $7,052 above this year’s median salary. Stated another way, over the last decade, superintendent real wages have decreased about $7,000 below where they should be if their salaries were annually adjusted for inflation.”
Superintendents with either an Ed.D. or Ph.D. had higher median salaries than those without.
Other key findings include:
- Among superintendents surveyed, 73.2 percent were male and 26.5 percent were female (female superintendents were found to make 99.2 percent of what their male counterparts earned in 2024–25)
- Almost 52 percent of respondents had more than five years of experience as superintendent, while a little more than 44 percent of male superintendents and about 57 percent of female superintendents had five years or less of experience in the role
- Overall, almost 93 percent of survey respondents reported that they would continue to serve in the position of superintendent in 2025–26
