The Changing Demography of UK Schools | Sources

Sources for England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and Independent (private) schools

Jul 13, 2026

Schools in England

This section contains an overview of all the sources used to compile the ethnic makeup of state-funded primary and state-funded secondary schools in England from 2003 to 2026, though releases for 1996 to 2002 are linked if you are interested.

As the school census takes place in January, the releases used to be labelled January followed by the year, e.g. January 2016, which is now referenced as the 2015/16 academic year. If you wish to review any of these releases, you may see both used interchangeably.

1996: All Schools: 1996 dataset (ED 267/80)

Note: This first release is not human readable and requires a key to decode. This release was also quite primitive, as it only recorded the number of ethnic minority pupils as a percentage of total enrolment. The guidance given to schools could have led to ethnic minority students not being recorded if they were below a certain threshold as the guidance does not state whether this applied to class size or total enrolment at school or year level. A preliminary reading would suggest that around 10% of pupils in 1996 came from an ethnic minority background, which would imply the remaining 90% were white or didn’t have an ethnicity stated.

1997: All Schools: 1997 dataset (ED 267/81)

Note: The 1997 release added several white options, including “White UK”, “White European” and “White Other”, though nearly 1,000 schools didn’t bother disaggregating the different white groups and only reported the combined white total. A preliminary reading of this release would suggest around 87% of enrolment was white, with around 2.5% of pupils being unclassified and the remaining 10.5% being from an ethnic minority background. It is likely a majority of the unclassified pupils were white, as later releases showed a higher total white percentage. You can also find a Schools in England 1997 release listed on The National Archives, though it’s not available online.

From 1998 onwards, human readable bulletins are available in PDF or Excel formats, and pupils where an ethnicity isn’t stated are disaggregated, rather than being counted with white pupils as non-ethnic minority pupils.

1998: Schools in England 1998, Table 49a for primary schools and Table 49b for secondary schools
1999: Schools in England 1999, Table 49a for primary schools and Table 49b for secondary schools
2000: Schools in England 2000, Table 49a for primary schools and Table 49b for secondary schools
2001: Schools in England 2001, Table 47a for primary schools and Table 47b for secondary schools
2002: Statistics of Education Schools in England 2002 Edition, Table 47a for primary schools and Table 47b for secondary schools

Note: In 2002, the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) began introducing new ethnicity codes to align with the 2001 census. In the PDF, the DfES notes that only 4% of schools opted to use the new ethnicity codes, so the results were produced using the old ethnicity codes that the overwhelming majority of schools stuck with for this year.

2003: Statistics of Education Schools in England 2003 Edition, Table 47a for primary schools and Table 47b for secondary schools

Note: The 2003 release was overhauled by DfES (now Department for Education) and fully incorporated the new ethnicity codes to better align with the ethnicity categories in the 2001 census. It added many more ethnic categories, including “White British” and several mixed categories. For the 2003 release, use the corrections PDF or the Excel document, as the main PDF contains incorrect totals for ethnicity groups. The figures in the Excel document are rounded to the nearest 10. Figures in the corrections PDF are unrounded. I have used the Excel document figures for simplicity.

2004: Statistics of Education Schools in England 2004 Edition, Table 47a for primary schools and Table 47b for secondary schools
2005: Schools and Pupils in England: January 2005 (Final), Table 5 for both primary and secondary schools in the PDF. Table 32 for primary schools and Table 33 for secondary schools in the Excel document
2006: Schools and Pupils in England: January 2006 (Final), Table 5 for both primary and secondary schools in the PDF. Table 32 for primary schools and Table 33 for secondary schools in the Excel document
2007: DCSF: Schools and Pupils in England: January 2007 (Final), Table 5 for both primary and secondary schools in the PDF. Table 32 for primary schools and Table 33 for secondary schools in the Excel document
2008: DCSF: Special Educational Needs in England: January 2008, Table 8a for primary schools and Table 8b for secondary schools

Note: I don’t know why they didn’t publish a final version of the January 2008 data with the usual naming scheme, however if you read the PDF, it notes this release updates the provisional figures from the DCSF: Pupil Characteristics and Class Sizes in Maintained Schools in England: January 2008 (Provisional); the changes between both releases are minor and would not impact the overall percentages.

2009: DCSF: Schools, Pupils and Their Characteristics: January 2009, Table 4 in the Excel document for both primary and secondary schools

Note: While the 2009 release is labelled as provisional, the Excel documents are based on final data. This can also be cross-referenced by checking the DCSF: Special Educational Needs in England: January 2009 release.

Data from January 2010 onwards is much easier to access and less fragmented across different releases and with different naming schemes. The data is hosted on the official UK Government website and is maintained by the Department for Education (DfE).

While you can find 2010 (and newer) releases on The National Archives website, there is no point in using them, as this data is still maintained and accessible on the official UK Government website.

2010: Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2010, National tables: SFR09/2010, Table 4
2011: Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2011, Main national tables: SFR12/2011, Table 4
2012: Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2012, National tables: SFR10/2012, Table 4a
2013: Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2013, National tables: SFR21/2013, Table 4a
2014: Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2014, National tables: SFR15/2014, Table 4a
2015: Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2015, National tables: SFR16/2015, Table 4a

January 2016 – January 2026, or if using the new naming scheme, the 2015/16 – 2025/26 academic year

From the 2015/16 academic year onwards, the DfE changed how the data is released. While you can find the Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2016 release on the website (including the 2017, 2018 and 2019 releases as well), it’s much simpler to download the ZIP file from the latest Schools, pupils and their characteristics release, currently 2025/26, extract the ZIP file and in the ‘data’ folder, open spc_pupils_ethnicity_and_language.

You can sort at the national level, disaggregate state-funded primary and secondary schools and view the exact number and percentage of pupils from the 2015/16 to 2025/26 academic year.

Note: From January 2018 onwards, ethnicity was collected for children below compulsory school age. Prior to January 2018, it was only collected for compulsory school age children. This change did not significantly alter the percentages for any ethnic group, though (expectedly) it did increase total numbers in each ethnic group and total pupils listed.

In the example below, I have taken the CSV file, sorted the period to the 2015/16 academic year, set the geographic level to national and sorted to only show state-funded primary schools. You can do the same for state-funded secondary schools or show the total.

There is some disparity between the figures, the Schools, pupils and their characteristics: January 2016 release shows a total of 3,655,225 pupils in state-funded primary schools, of which 2,483,503 were White British. The CSV file, once sorted, shows a total of 3,656,083 pupils in state-funded primary schools, a difference of 858, and shows a total of 2,483,503 White British pupils, a difference of zero. As the CSV file is supported and still updated, capturing any late registrations or imputation errors, I am taking it as the authoritative source.

You can then copy across the figures for all ethnic groups and build a document that covers 1998 to 2026 and work out the percentages for all ethnic groups, across all years, in both state-funded primary and secondary schools.

Schools in Wales

Pupils aged 5 or over by ethnic background, 2004 to 2025. This ad-hoc request was produced by the Welsh Government schools’ statistical team.

Table1 covers all years from 2004 to 2025, including numbers and percentages for all ethnic groups, across all years.

Schools in Scotland

All releases below cover 2003 to 2025: Pupil census supplementary statistics

Pupil census 2007 supplementary statistics, Table 1.11 for 2007 and 1.12 for 2003, 2004, 2005 and 2006
Pupil census 2008 supplementary statistics, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2009 supplementary statistics, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2010 supplementary tables, Table 1.9
Pupil census 2011 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2012 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2013 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2014 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2015 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2016 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2017 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2018 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2019 supplementary tables, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2020 supplementary statistics, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2021 supplementary statistics, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2022 supplementary statistics, Table 1.10
Pupil census 2023 supplementary statistics, Table 1.10
Pupil census supplementary statistics 2024, Table 1.10
Pupil census supplementary statistics 2025, Table 1.10

Schools in Northern Ireland

From 2005/06 to 2014/15, ethnicity data was included in both Table 6a and 6b. Table 6a covered nursery schools, nursery classes, reception and other pre-school centres. Table 6b covered nursery schools, nursery classes, reception, primary schools, secondary schools, grammar schools and special schools.

Table 6b is used for 2005/06 to 2014/15. For all following years, Table 6a is used.

Note: There was industrial action for the 2023/24 academic year, and no ethnicity data was recorded. This year has been left blank.

The mainline Northern Ireland school enrolment statistics do not include the number of pupils who don’t have an ethnicity stated. An ad-hoc request was obtained from the Statistical Analysis Team at the Department of Education covering 2010/11 to 2025/26, with more detailed ethnic breakdowns and the number of pupils without a stated ethnicity. The number of unclassified pupils is remarkably low in Northern Ireland, consistently below 1,000 a year and sometimes as few as 7, so would not impact headline figures.

If you wish to acquire this ad-hoc release, you can email statistics@education-ni.gov.uk and request the document titled “Compulsory school age pupils in NI schools by ethnic background”. I have also included a screenshot of the table below.

Independent (private) schools

The Independent Schools Council (ISC) publishes a yearly census, and some participating independent schools provide ethnicity information. According to the ISC, they cover 85% of pupils in the UK who are educated in independent schools, so this is the most accurate method available.

Note: From 2009 to 2014, the ISC census excluded boarding schools for ethnicity figures. For all census releases from 2015 and onwards, boarding schools are included if the boarding school reported ethnicity information. This did not significantly alter the percentage of pupils who were White British or from an ethnic minority background, nor did it impact overall trends.

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