Key points

  • There are 164,717 pupils in primary schools and preparatory departments (years 1-7), having decreased again from the previous year, by over 2,800 pupils.

  • In total 156,763 pupils are enrolled in post-primary schools, a decrease of nearly 130 pupils from last year. This is the first decrease seen in post-primary since 2016/17.

  • There are 21,878 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 additional 107 pupils of pre-school age are in Specialist Provision in Mainstream.

  • Approximately 90,300 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 2025. 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 2026.


Section 1: Schools in Northern Ireland

The number of schools in Northern Ireland continues to decrease, from 1,124 in 2021/22 to 1,102 in 2025/26 (Table 1). Much of this decrease can be explained by a reduction of 20 primary schools since 2021/22.

The number of funded pre-school settings has decreased from 715 last year to 707 this year. This includes 317 voluntary and private pre-schools, 258 primary schools with nursery provision, 93 nursery schools and 39 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 2021/22 - 2025/26

The number of schools in Northern Ireland continues to decrease

School and management type 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26
Voluntary and private pre-school education centres [1] 356 349 339 322 317
Nursery schools - Controlled 62 60 60 60 57
Nursery schools - Catholic maintained 31 31 31 31 31
Nursery schools - Controlled Integrated 1 2 2 2 5
Nursery schools - Total 94 93 93 93 93
Primary schools - Controlled 355 354 351 346 343
Primary schools - Catholic maintained [2] 355 354 351 346 345
Primary schools - Other maintained 27 27 27 27 26
Primary schools - Controlled integrated 24 24 25 27 27
Primary schools - Grant maintained integrated 23 23 23 23 23
Primary schools - Total 784 782 777 769 764
Preparatory depts in grammar schools 12 12 12 12 11
Primary schools and preparatory depts - Total 796 794 789 781 775
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Controlled 48 47 47 47 47
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Catholic maintained 56 56 56 54 54
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Other maintained 2 2 2 2 2
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Controlled integrated 5 6 6 6 6
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Grant maintained integrated 15 15 15 15 15
Secondary (non grammar) schools - Total 126 126 126 124 124
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 192 192 192 190 190
Special schools 39 39 39 40 40
Hospital schools 1 1 1 0 0
Independent schools 14 14 14 13 15
All schools [3] 1,124 1,121 1,116 1,105 1,102
All schools and pre-school education centres 1,480 1,470 1,455 1,427 1,419


Notes:

  1. Voluntary and private centres funded under the Pre-school Education Expansion Programme, which began in 1998/99.
  2. In 2023/24 there were 2 Catholic maintained schools that did not have any pupils enrolled on census day, and officially closed on 31 October 2024.
  3. All schools totals do 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 near 352,000 pupils in all funded schools (including voluntary and private pre-schools) in October 2025 (Table 2).

Figure 1 - Enrolments in primary and post-primary schools in Northern Ireland 2015/16 - 2025/26

The number of pupils in all funded schools has decreased again


Note: graph has a non-zero axis


Enrolments in primary and preparatory years 1-7 have decreased again, by over 2,800 pupils when compared to last year (from 167,523 to 164,717) (Figure 1).

Enrolments in post-primary schools have decreased to approximately 156,760 pupils. This is the first decrease seen in post-primary for nine years.

  • Enrolments have decreased again in non-grammar, by over 250 pupils. Meanwhile, enrolments in grammar schools have increased again, by near 130 pupils. (Table 2).

  • The number of pupils enrolled in sixth form have increased again by near 410 pupils since last year and now stands at 29,959 (Table 2).

  • The number of pupils enrolled in years 8 – 12 has decreased, decreasing by over 530 pupils since last year. This aligns with the number of 11 – 15 year olds in NISRA’s population projections (.xlsx file, size: 0.9 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 21,878, which has decreased by over 160 pupils since last year.

The number of pre-school aged pupils in Specialist Provision has stayed the same, at 107 pupils.

Special school enrolments have increased by near 1,080 pupils in the last five years to 7,729 in 2025/26.

Figure 2: Enrolments in special schools and funded pre-school education in Northern Ireland 2015/16 - 2025/26

The number of children in pre-school education has decreased from last year, while the number of special school enrolments have 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 2021/22 - 2025/26

The number of pupils in all funded schools decreased again

School type 2021/22 2022/23 2023/24 2024/25 2025/26
Voluntary and private pre-school - Full-time NA NA NA NA 1,114
Voluntary and private pre-school - Part-time 7,327 7,043 6,816 6,388 5,256
Voluntary and private pre-school - Total [1] 7,327 7,043 6,816 6,388 6,370
Nursery schools - Full-time 3,929 3,907 3,976 3,975 4,300
Nursery schools - Part-time 1,866 1,889 1,800 1,745 1,230
Nursery schools - Total [2] 5,795 5,796 5,776 5,720 5,530
Nursery schools - Specialist Provision [2] 0 0 8 21 30
Nursery class in primary school - Full-time 5,163 5,156 5,199 5,294 6,367
Nursery class in primary school - Part-time 4,505 4,498 4,523 4,456 3,451
Nursery class in primary school - Total [3] 9,668 9,654 9,722 9,750 9,818
Pre-school Specialist Provision in primary schools [2] 0 45 76 86 77
Reception 149 177 158 184 160
Primary schools - Years 1-7 170,795 169,722 168,036 166,211 163,580
Preparatory depts in grammar schools - Years 1-7 1,530 1,477 1,429 1,312 1,137
Primary and preparatory depts - Years 1-7 - Total 172,325 171,199 169,465 167,523 164,717
Primary and preparatory depts - Total 182,142 181,075 179,421 177,543 174,772
Secondary (non-grammar) schools - Years 8-12 74,258 76,722 78,370 77,845 77,518
Secondary (non-grammar) schools - Sixth form [4] 12,330 11,868 12,151 12,476 12,551
Secondary (non-grammar) schools - Total 86,588 88,590 90,486 90,321 90,069
Grammar schools - Years 8-12 48,268 48,652 48,953 49,492 49,286
Grammar schools - Sixth form [4] 17,045 17,070 16,964 17,076 17,408
Grammar schools - Total 65,313 65,722 65,917 66,568 66,694
Post-primary schools - Total 151,901 154,312 156,403 156,889 156,763
Special schools 6,653 6,930 7,192 7,462 7,729
Independent schools 716 791 772 732 700
All schools 347,207 348,904 349,572 348,367 345,524
All schools and pre-school education centres 354,534 355,947 356,388 354,755 351,894


Notes:

NA - Not applicable: In May 2024 the Minister of Education set out his intention to standardise the Pre-school Education Programme (PSEP) to full-time (22.5 hours per week) for all children aged 3-4. The Department, in conjunction with the Education Authority (EA), is progressing a Pre-School Standardisation Programme (PSP) to effect this change over time.

  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

Based on provisional data, approximately 90,300 pupils are entitled to free school meals in 2025/26, which represents 26% of children in funded education (Table 3).

The proportion of pupils that are free school meal entitled has remained the same from last year in primary and preparatory depts (27%) and post-primary (23%; 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 (55%). 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 2021/22 - 2025/26

Approximately 90,300 pupils (26% of children) are entitled to free school meals

School type 2021/22 (%) 2022/23 (%) 2023/24 (%) 2024/25 (%) 2025/26 (%)
Voluntary and private pre-school - Full-time NA NA NA NA 27
Voluntary and private pre-school - Part-time 15 15 19 21 15
Voluntary and private pre-school - Total [1,2] 15 15 19 21 17
Nursery schools - Full-time 50 50 53 52 49
Nursery schools - Part-time 16 16 16 18 16
Nursery schools - Total [1,4,6,7] 39 39 41 42 41
Nursery class in primary school - Full-time 44 44 46 43 42
Nursery class in primary school - Part-time 15 15 15 16 19
Nursery class in primary school - Total [7] 31 31 32 31 34
Reception [7] 14 18 16 13 9
Primary schools - Years 1-7 29 28 28 27 27
Preparatory depts in grammar schools - Years 1-7 1 1 1 1 1
Primary and preparatory depts - Years 1-7 - Total 29 28 28 27 26
Primary and preparatory depts - Total 29 28 28 27 27
Secondary (non grammar) schools 36 35 34 32 32
Grammar schools 13 13 12 11 11
Post-primary schools - Total 26 25 25 23 23
Special schools 53 52 54 54 55
All schools [3] 29 28 27 26 26
All schools and pre-school education centres 28 27 27 26 26


Notes:

NA - Not applicable: In May 2024 the Minister of Education set out his intention to standardise the Pre-school Education Programme (PSEP) to full-time (22.5 hours per week) for all children aged 3-4. The Department, in conjunction with the Education Authority (EA), is progressing a Pre-School Standardisation Programme (PSP) to effect this change over time.

  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 Details

Published by: Statistical Analysis Team, Department of Education

Lead Statistician: Gemma Thomson

Telephone: 028 9127 9707

Email: census@education-ni.gov.uk

Press Office: press.office@education-ni.gov.uk

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 Statistics 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 data collection 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 return via an online app/ paper return comprising a number of tables; for post-primary, primary and special schools, and EOTAS centres, it consists of an electronic return comprising individual pupil records, made over a secure file transfer system.

    The tables presented in the release reflect key information on enrolments, as determined by Departmental needs and on requests for information from other sources.

    The figures for pre-school children in this release relate to children in funded pre-school education. The figures for nursery schools and classes relate to approved nursery schools and nursery classes in primary schools. The figures for reception refer to pupils who were below compulsory school age at 1st July 2025, who were admitted to a reception class or group in primary school following their 4th birthday. Schools may admit reception pupils throughout the year, but only those who have been admitted or will be admitted by 31st October are counted in the school census. Figures for pre-school aged pupils who are not part of the Pre-school Education Programme, but rather are in Specialist Provision in Mainstream for Early Years have been included separately [PSEP overview - Pre-school education places] (https://www.nidirect.gov.uk/articles/pre-school-education-places).

  2. The figures in this statistical release are based on information as at 10 October 2025. 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 2026.

  4. 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.

  5. 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.

  6. The data is produced at aggregate level only, therefore individual pupils cannot be identified. More information on confidentiality can be found in the DE Confidentiality and Access Statement.

  7. The categories for recording pupils with special educational needs (SEN) were revised in 2019, along with the creation of an electronic Medical Register. A pupil’s placement on the SEN register, as required under the SEN Code of Practice, means that the child has a SEN which requires special educational provision to be made. For further information, see the Department’s SEN and medical categories guidance.

    From 2021 the number of Special Education Needs (SEN) stages reduced from five to three. The three individual stages are defined in the draft SEN Code as follows:

    • Stage 1: School delivered special educational provision by the teacher, working with the SENCo.
    • Stage 2: School delivered special educational provision plus external special educational provision is being implemented, for example by the EA or HSC Trust.
    • Stage 3/ Statement: School delivered plus special educational provision as set out in a Statement.

    For further information, see DE Circular 2021/06 - Three Stages of Special Educational Provision.

  8. Specialist Provision in Mainstream (previously known as ‘Learning Support Centres’) refers to classes/units in mainstream primary and post primary schools that have been approved by the Education Authority for the purpose of making educational provisions for pupils with statements of special educational needs. There are several different types of Specialist Provision for example, Social Communication (Autism), Learning, Behaviour, Hearing, Physical, or Speech.

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.
  • Education Other Than at School (EOTAS) includes all forms of education that takes place outside the formal school environment.

  1. Action Short of Strike

    For the 2023/24 academic year, the school census exercise was impacted by industrial action, due to ongoing Action Short of Strike (ASOS). For further information please see Annual Enrolments at schools and in funded pre-school education in Northern Ireland, 2023/24.

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