Schools

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Data on students, staff, schools, rates and ratios for government and non-government schools, for all Australian states and territories

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Reference period
2019
Released
6/02/2020
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Key statistics

  • there were 3,948,811 students enrolled in 9,503 schools.
  • teachers made up 68.5% of in-school full-time equivalent staff.
  • the year 7 to 12 full-time apparent retention rate was 84.0%.
  • the average student to teaching staff ratio for all schools was 13.7.

Students

In 2019

  • there were 3,948,811 students enrolled in schools across Australia, an increase of 54,977 (1.4%) since 2018
  • government schools held the greatest share of enrolments (65.7%), followed by Catholic schools (19.5%) and independent schools (14.8%)
     

A twenty year view of enrolment shares shows a decline in government shares until 2014. Since then, there has been an overall slight upward trend in government school enrolments, with 2019 shares close to those in 2010.

Graph 1. Proportion of enrolments by school affiliation, Australia, 1999 to 2019

Graph 1. Proportion of enrolments by school affiliation, Australia, 1999 to 2019

Line chart with 2 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from 30.1 to 69.9.
End of interactive chart.

Total student enrolments have continued to increase in the five years to 2019, with a 5.3% increase. Independent schools had the largest increase with 8.1%, followed by government schools with 6.1%.

Table 1. Student enrolments by school affiliation, Australia, 2015-2019

201920182017201620152015-19 (% change)
Government2,594,8302,558,1692,524,8652,483,8022,445,1306.1
Catholic769,719765,735766,870767,050765,5390.5
Independent584,262569,930557,490547,374540,3048.1
TOTAL3,948,8113,893,8343,849,2253,798,2263,750,9735.3


The Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and Queensland reported the highest annual growth rates of student enrolments in 2019 (2.0%, 1.8%, and 1.7% respectively), while the Northern Territory reported a slight decline (down 0.1%).

These patterns are consistent with changes to the total population aged 5 to 19 years living in these states and territories, with Victoria, Queensland and the Australian Capital Territory experiencing the highest growth rates for this age group (2.0%, 1.7% and 1.6% respectively), and the Northern Territory experiencing the only decline (down 0.1%) (Australian Demographic Statistics, Jun 2019, cat. no. 3101.0).

Graph 2. Annual growth rates in student enrolments by state and territory, 2018 to 2019

Graph 2. Annual growth rates in student enrolments by state and territory, 2018 to 2019

Bar chart with 9 bars.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from -0.1 to 2.
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In 2019, non-government school enrolment rates were

  • highest in the Australian Capital Territory (38.9%) and Victoria (36.0%)
  • lowest in the Northern Territory (26.3%)
  • lower for students attending schools in very remote areas (13.3%) than for remote areas (21.8%), outer regional areas (25.8%), inner regional areas (33.4%) and major cities (36.4%)
     

Map 1. Student enrolment counts by state and territory and school affiliation, 2019

A map of Australia showing student enrolment counts by state and territory and school affiliation for 2019

Retention rates

In 2019

  • the year 7 to 12 full-time apparent retention rate for Australia was 84.0%, a slight decrease from 84.5% in 2018
  • the retention rate for females (88.6%) was higher than for males (79.6%)
  • independent schools had the highest retention rate (93.2%), followed by government schools (82.2%) then Catholic schools (81.1%)
  • the Australian Capital Territory had the highest retention rate at 94.0%, and the Northern Territory had the lowest retention rate at 54.3%
     

Graph 3. Year 7 to 12 full-time apparent retention rates by school affiliation, Australia, 2009-2019

Graph 3. Year 7 to 12 full-time apparent retention rates by school affiliation, Australia, 2009-2019

Line chart with 3 lines.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from 74.7 to 94.5.
End of interactive chart.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

In 2019

  • there were 230,677 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled in Australian schools in 2019, 3.9% higher than in 2018
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students accounted for 5.8% of all students
  • the majority of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students were enrolled in government schools (83.7%)
  • the Northern Territory had the highest proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at 39.1%
  • the remaining states and territories recorded enrolments, ranging from 1.7% in Victoria to 9.2% in Tasmania
     

Graph 4. Proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student enrolments by state and territory, 2019

Graph 4. Proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student enrolments by state and territory, 2019

Bar chart with 9 bars.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from 1.7 to 39.1.
End of interactive chart.


Year 7 to 12 full-time apparent retention rates

  • The retention rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in 2019 was 58.7%, a slight decrease from 60.9% in 2018.
  • Queensland and Tasmania experienced the greatest decline in retention rates (2.8 and 2.0 percentage points respectively).
  • The largest increase in retention rates occurred in the Northern Territory (2.5 percentage points).

Schools

In 2019

  • there were 9,503 schools in Australia, a net increase of 26 schools since 2018 (13 government, 10 independent and 3 Catholic schools)
  • Queensland reported the largest increase in total school counts (10 schools), followed by Victoria (9 schools)
     

Table 2. School counts by state and territory, 2018-2019

NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACTAust
2,0193,1032,2471,7557151,0972621891359,503
2,0183,1012,2381,7457161,0942611881349,477

Staff

In 2019

  • there were 288,294 full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff in Australian schools (similar to 2018), of which 81,456 were male and 206,838 were female
  • there were 149,462 teachers in primary schools, and 138,832 teachers in secondary schools
  • there was a higher proportion of male teachers in secondary schools (39.2%) than primary schools (18.1%)
     

Graph 5. Proportion of full-time equivalent teaching staff by sex and school level, Australia, 2019

Graph 5. Proportion of full-time equivalent teaching staff by sex and school level, Australia, 2019

Bar chart with 2 data series.
The chart has 1 X axis displaying .
The chart has 1 Y axis displaying %. Data ranges from 18.1 to 81.9.
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The student to teaching staff ratio for all schools was 13.7, and was higher in primary schools (15.1) than secondary schools (12.1).

Independent schools had a lower student to teacher ratio (11.7) than Catholic schools (13.9) and government schools (14.2).

Data downloads

Table 32a non-special schools by primary enrolment, 2004-2019

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Table 33a non-special schools by secondary enrolment, 2004-2019

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Table 35b counts of all schools, 2010-2019

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Table 36a non-special schools by enrolment size ranges, 2015-2019

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Table 42b number of full-time and part-time students, 2006-2019

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Table 43a full-time equivalent students, 2006-2019

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Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 4221.0.

Methodology

Schools, Australia methodology, 2019

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