Key points

  • There are 167,526 pupils in primary schools and preparatory departments (years 1-7), a decrease of near 2,000 from the previous year.

  • In total 156,895 pupils are enrolled in post-primary schools, an increase of near 500 pupils from 2023/24.

  • There are 22,043 pupils in funded pre-school education, that is, pupils attending a nursery school or class, reception or funded voluntary and private pre-school which are part of the Pre-school Education Programme. An additonal 104 pupils of pre-school age are in Specialist Provision in Mainstream.

  • Approximately 92,000 pupils in all schools (including voluntary and private pre-schools) in Northern Ireland are entitled to free school meals and this represents a quarter of all pupils.

Infographic

Introduction

The data in the following bulletin are taken from the school enrolments census, which was conducted in October 2024. Data collected through the school census exercise are used by the Department of Education (DE) to inform a wide range of policy areas, including finance allocations, school estate development and planning, special education, school improvement, area based planning, extended schools, additional educational needs, early years and integrated and Irish medium education. Other users include the Education Authority, the Education and Training Inspectorate and to inform responses to Assembly questions and requests from academic researchers, journalists, lobby groups and the public.

This first release of the basic statistics contains information which is used in the process to allocate funding to schools. These figures are provisional and subject to change. A further statistical release, containing a more detailed set of tables based on finalised and validated data, will be published in February/ March 2025.


Section 1: Schools in Northern Ireland

The number of schools in Northern Ireland continues to decrease, from 1,134 in 2020/21 to 1,105 in 2024/25 (Table 1). Much of this decrease can be explained by a reduction of 22 in the number of primary schools since 2020/21.

The number of funded pre-school settings has decreased from 727 last year to 715 this year. This includes 322 voluntary and private pre-schools, 256 primary schools with nursery provision, 93 nursery schools and 44 primary schools with reception classes.

To avoid double counting the number of primary schools with nursery or reception classes have not been split out separately in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of schools and pre-school education centres by management type 2020/21 - 2024/25

The number of schools in Northern Ireland continues to decrease

School and management type 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25
Voluntary and private pre-school education centres [1] 362 356 349 339 322
Nursery schools - Controlled 64 62 60 60 60
Nursery schools - Catholic maintained 31 31 31 31 31
Nursery schools - Controlled Integrated 0 1 2 2 2
Nursery schools - Total 95 94 93 93 93
Primary schools - Controlled 360 355 354 351 346
Primary schools - Catholic maintained [2] 358 355 354 351 346
Primary schools - Other maintained 28 27 27 27 27
Primary schools - Controlled integrated 22 24 24 25 27
Primary schools - Grant maintained integrated 23 23 23 23 23
Primary schools - Total 791 784 782 777 769
Preparatory depts in grammar schools 12 12 12 12 12
Primary schools and preparatory depts - Total 803 796 794 789 781
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Controlled 48 48 47 47 47
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Catholic maintained 57 56 56 56 54
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Other maintained 2 2 2 2 2
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Controlled integrated 5 5 6 6 6
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Grant maintained integrated 15 15 15 15 15
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Total 127 126 126 126 124
Grammar schools - Controlled 16 16 16 16 16
Grammar schools - Voluntary - under Catholic management 29 29 29 29 29
Grammar schools - Voluntary - under other management 21 21 21 21 21
Grammar schools - Total 66 66 66 66 66
Post primary schools - Total 193 192 192 192 190
Special schools 39 39 39 39 40
Hospital schools 1 1 1 1 0
Independent schools 15 14 14 14 13
All schools [3] 1,134 1,124 1,121 1,116 1,105
All schools and pre-school education centres 1,496 1,480 1,470 1,455 1,427

Notes:

  1. Voluntary and private centres funded under the Pre-school Education Expansion Programme, which began in 1998/99.
  2. Catholic maintained total in 2019/20 includes a school that did not have any pupils enrolled on census day. In 2023/24 there were 2 Catholic maintained schools that did not have any pupils enrolled on census day
  3. All schools total does not count preparatory departments as separate schools as they are so closely linked to grammar schools.


Section 2: Enrolments in schools in Northern Ireland

There were over 354,000 pupils in all funded schools (including voluntary and private pre-schools) in October 2024 (Table 2).

Figure 1 - Enrolments in primary and post-primary schools in Northern Ireland 2014/15 - 2024/25

The number of pupils in all funded schools has decreased for the first time in fourteen years

Note: graph has a non-zero axis


Enrolments in primary and preparatory years 1-7 have decreased again, by over 1,900 pupils when compared to last year (from 169,465 to 167,526) (Figure 1).

Enrolments in post-primary schools have increased for the eighth year in a row to 156,895 pupils.

  • Enrolments have decreased in non-grammar for the first time since 2016/17, with a decrease this year of near 160 pupils. Meanwhile, enrolments in grammar schools have increased, rising by over 650 pupils. (Table 2).

  • The number of pupils enrolled in sixth form have increased by over 400 pupils since last year and now stands at 29,554 (Table 2).

  • The number of pupils enrolled in years 8 – 12 has remained stable, increasing by 18 since last year. This stability aligns with the number of 11 – 15 year olds in NISRA’s population estimates (.xlsx file, size: 3.2 MB).

The number of children in funded pre-school education, that is, reception classes, nursery schools and units, or voluntary and private pre-school centres which are part of the Pre-school Education Programme, is 22,043, which has decreased by over 400 pupils since last year. The number of pre-school aged pupils in Specialist Provision in Mainstream has increased, from 84 to 104.

Special school enrolments have also increased, rising by over 1,000 pupils in the last five years to 7,463 in 2024/25.

Figure 2: Enrolments in special schools and funded pre-school education in Northern Ireland 2014/15 - 2024/25

The number of children in pre-school education has dropped from last year and there is an overall decrease in the number of pupils over the last thirteen years, while the number of special school enrolments has gradually increased

Note: Specialist Provision in Mainstream was extended to pre-school aged pupils from 2022/23. These pupils are not part of the Pre-school Education Programme and have been excluded from these figures


Table 2: Number of pupils in schools and children in funded pre-school education by type of establishment attended 2020/21 - 2024/25

The number of pupils in all funded schools increased

School type 2020/21 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25
Voluntary and private pre-school education centre [1] 7,464 7,327 7,043 6,816 6,388
Nursery schools - Full-time 3,935 3,929 3,907 3,976 3,975
Nursery schools - Part-time 1,900 1,866 1,889 1,800 1,745
Nursery schools - Specialist Provision [2] 0 0 0 8 21
Nursery schools - Total 5,835 5,795 5,796 5,784 5,741
Nursery class in primary school - Full-time 5,121 5,163 5,156 5,199 5,325
Nursery class in primary school - Part-time 4,512 4,505 4,498 4,523 4,426
Nursery class in primary school - Total [3] 9,633 9,668 9,654 9,722 9,751
Pre-school Specialist Provision in primary schools [2] 0 0 45 76 83
Reception 180 149 177 158 184
Primary schools - Years 1-7 171,706 170,795 169,722 168,036 166,214
Preparatory depts in grammar schools - Years 1-7 1,560 1,530 1,477 1,429 1,312
Primary and preparatory depts - Years 1-7 - Total 173,266 172,325 171,199 169,465 167,526
Primary and preparatory depts - Total 183,079 182,142 181,075 179,421 177,544
Secondary (non-grammar) schools - Years 8-12 72,723 74,258 76,722 78,370 77,849
Secondary (non-grammar) schools - Sixth form [4] 11,797 12,330 11,868 12,151 12,478
Secondary (non-grammar) schools - Total 84,520 86,588 88,590 90,486 90,327
Grammar schools - Years 8-12 47,554 48,268 48,652 48,953 49,492
Grammar schools - Sixth form [4] 16,844 17,045 17,070 16,964 17,076
Grammar schools - Total 64,398 65,313 65,722 65,917 66,568
Post-primary schools - Total 148,918 151,901 154,312 156,403 156,895
Special schools 6,403 6,653 6,930 7,192 7,463
Independent schools 625 716 791 772 732
All schools 344,860 347,207 348,904 349,572 348,375
All schools and pre-school education centres 352,324 354,534 355,947 356,388 354,763

Notes:

  1. Includes funded pupils in Voluntary and Private Centres.

  2. Specialist Provision in Mainstream was extended to pre-school aged pupils from 2022/23. These pupils are not part of the Pre-school Education Programme and have been included separately from pupils in the Programme

  3. Nursery and reception pupils who are enrolled in preparatory departments of grammar schools are not included as they are not funded by the Department

  4. Pupils in sixth form refer to those that are studying level 3 qualifications (i.e. A Level or equivalent).


Section 3: Pupils entitled to free school meals

Background: School milk and meals information

Based on provisional data, approximately 90,600 pupils are entitled to free school meals in 2024/25, which represents 26% of children in funded education (excluding voluntary and private pre-schools; Table 3).

The proportion of pupils that are free school meal entitled has slightly decreased from last year in primary and preparatory depts (27% compared to 28% last year). The proportion in post-primary has also decreased (23% compared to 25% last year; Table 3).

There are some differences in free school meal entitlement by school type. Special schools have a much higher than average proportion of pupils entitled to free school meals (54%). Non-grammar pupils are also much more likely than grammar school pupils to be entitled to free school meals (32% compared to 11%; Table 3).

Table 3: Percentage of children entitled to free school meals [1] [4] [5] by type of establishment 2020/21 - 2024/25

Approximately 91,900 pupils (26% of children) are entitled to free school meals

School type 2020/21 (%) 2021/22 (%) 2022/23 (%) 2023/24 (%) 2024/25 (%)
Voluntary and private pre-school education centres [1] [2] 8 15 15 19 21
Nursery schools - Full-time 48 50 50 53 51
Nursery schools - Part-time 10 16 16 16 18
Nursery schools - Total [1] [4] [6] [7] 35 39 39 41 41
Nursery class in primary school - Full-time 40 44 44 46 43
Nursery class in primary school - Part-time 9 15 15 15 16
Nursery class in primary school - Total [7] 25 31 31 32 31
Reception [7] 9 14 18 16 12
Primary schools - Years 1-7 29 29 28 28 27
Preparatory depts in grammar schools - Years 1-7 1 1 1 1 1
Primary and preparatory depts - Years 1-7 - Total 29 29 28 28 27
Primary and preparatory depts - Total 28 29 28 28 27
Secondary (non grammar) schools 37 36 35 34 32
Grammar schools 14 13 13 12 11
Post-primary schools - Total 27 26 25 25 23
Special schools 51 53 52 54 54
All schools [3] 28 29 28 27 26
All schools and pre-school education centres 28 28 27 27 26

Notes:

  1. Figures for pupils in nursery schools/units and pre-schools include parents who are entitled to receive Income Support, or Income-Based Jobseeker’s Allowance, or Employment Support Allowance where an award of income-based job-seekers allowance has been converted; or Universal Credit. These are some of the benefits which determine eligibility for free school meals.

  2. Voluntary and Private centres funded under the Pre-school Education Expansion Programme, which began in 1998/99.

  3. Free school meal entitlement data is not validated for independent schools therefore has not been included.

  4. Eligibility under the Working Tax Credit free school meal criterion was introduced on a phased basis with Nursery, Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1 pupils eligible from September 2010 and Key Stage 2 pupils eligible from September 2011. It was extended to post-primary pupils from September 2014.

  5. These figures may be subject to revision once the verification process with the EA has been completed.

  6. Nursery and reception pupils who are enrolled in prep. departments of grammar schools have not been included as they are not funded by the Department.

  7. Specialist Provision in Mainstream pupils are not part of the Pre-school Education Programme and but have been included alongside pupils in the Programme as they cannot be separated due to limited data for 2023/24 as a consequence of Industrial Action.


Contact information


Notes for readers

Accredited Official Statistics

  1. These accredited official statistics have been independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007. Accreditation signifies their compliance with the authority’s Code of Practice for tatistics which broadly means these statistics are:
  • managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
  • meet identified user needs
  • produced according to sound methods
  • well explained and readily accessible

  1. Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR). OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

  2. You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards. Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing or via the OSR website.

School Census

  1. The statistics in this release have been derived from the annual School Census; details about the survey may be found at School enrolments data collection and validation publication. For voluntary and private pre-school centres, and nursery schools, the census consists of a summary return made on an electronic application; for post-primary, primary and special schools, it consists of a return comprising individual pupil records, made by Electronic Data Interchange.

  2. The 2024/25 figures in this statistical release are based on information as at 11 October 2024. They may be subject to minor revision and these will be notified in accordance with our revisions policy, see Statistical Revisions documentation (.pdf file, size: 25KB).

  3. A further statistical release, containing finalised figures and a more detailed set of tables, will be published in February/ March 2025.

  4. Schools may admit reception pupils throughout the year, but only those who have been admitted by 31 October are counted in the school census.

  5. Further statistics relating to school numbers and enrolments can be found on the DE website under the Statistics and Research section. The DE website presents figures taken from the school census, summarised at regional, and school level. Statistics on pupil attendance, pupil: teacher ratios, school leaver destinations and qualifications may also be accessed via the website.

  6. Information on enrolments collected via the school census process are used to inform DE policy and procedures (particularly School Funding), as well as to inform Education Authority of detailed information useful to them in their auditing processes.

School types

  1. Definitions of school management types are as follows:
  • Controlled: Schools are managed and funded by the Education Authority through Boards of Governors (BoG). Primary and post-primary school BoGs consist of representatives of transferors - mainly the Protestant churches - along with representatives of parents, teachers and the EA.
  • Voluntary: Self-governing schools, generally of long standing, originally established to provide an academic education at post primary level on a fee paying basis. Now funded by the Department and managed by Boards of Governors. The BoGs are constituted in accordance with each school’s scheme of management - usually representatives of foundation governors, parents, teachers and in most cases, DE or EA representatives. The BoGs is the employing authority and is responsible for the employment of all staff in its school.
  • Maintained schools are managed by Boards of Governors which consist of members nominated by trustees, along with representatives of parents, teachers and the Education Authority. These schools are funded through the EA for their running costs and directly by the Department in relation to capital building works. For Catholic Maintained schools, the Employing Authority is the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools (CCMS). Other maintained schools are any schools that are not Catholic maintained. They are typically, but not exclusively, Irish medium schools.
  • Controlled integrated: Controlled schools which have acquired integrated status.
  • Grant Maintained integrated: Self-governing schools with integrated education status, funded directly by the Department of Education and managed by Boards of Governors. The BoG is the employing authority and responsible for employing staff.
  1. Definitions of other school types are as follows
  • A special school is a controlled or voluntary school which is specially organised to provide education for pupils with special needs and is recognised by the DE as a special school.
  • An independent school is a school at which full-time education is provided for pupils aged from 4 to 16 and is not grant aided. These schools set their own curriculum and admissions policies and are funded by fees paid by parents and income from investments. Each independent school must be registered with DE and is inspected regularly by ETI.

Further enquiries

Request for further information should be addressed to:-

Gemma Thomson
Conor McLean

Statistics and Research Team
Department of Education
Rathgael House
Balloo Road
Rathgill
BANGOR
Co. Down
BT19 7PR

Telephone (028) 9127 9707/ (028) 9127 9703
E-mail:

Special analyses of the school census can be undertaken on request.

Press enquiries should be made to the Department’s Press Office at the same address, telephone (028) 9127 9772.

Feedback on this publication can be provided directly to Gemma Thomson (contact details above) or contact the Statistics and Research Team

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