Educational expenditure has increasingly become an important component of rural household consumption structures, reflecting strategic choices in human capital investment and shifts in consumption perceptions. To gain an in-depth understanding of the actual situation of rural residents in terms of educational investment and consumption preferences, our research team conducted a large-scale household survey from June to July 2024 in 15 townships across five counties in Henan Province, resulting in the creation of the 2024 Henan Province Rural Education Investment and Consumption Preference Statistical Dataset. The questionnaire covered multiple dimensions, including household demographics and income, the structure of educational expenditures, online education usage, educational perceptions, and anxiety awareness. A total of 3,169 questionnaires were collected, of which 67 were excluded after checks for missing values and logical consistency, leaving 3,102 valid samples. The survey design was informed by expert interviews and literature reviews, and data collection was carried out through on-site household visits combined with random sampling, with strict quality control measures such as double-entry verification, outlier elimination, and logical consistency checks. Unlike previous studies focusing primarily on macro-level statistics, this dataset reveals at the micro level the educational expenditure behaviors, consumption preference choices, and anxiety characteristics of rural households. It provides solid empirical support for testing the applicability of the “education expenditure crowding-out effect,” examining the role of online education in promoting educational equity, and analyzing consumption differences across income groups. At the same time, the dataset offers practical references for the targeted allocation of educational resources, the assessment of rural household educational burdens, and the promotion of digital education products.