Department for Education · Explore Education Statistics: absence, SEN, attainment, apprenticeships, NEET, class sizes
Pupils persistently absent
1,340,437pupils
Pupils persistently absent was 1,340,437 pupils in 2024/25 academic year, down 9.9% (146,585) from 1,487,022 in 2023/24 academic year.
▼ 9.9% · −146,585 against 2023/24 academic year (previous period)
- Department for Education count
- 2024/25 academic year
- published 4 August 2026
- 019d209c-08dc-74b6-9edb-52d521406fcf
- row “Absence type=Persistent absence; School type=Total”
- column “Count of pupil enrolments”
- cell value 1340437
The series is falling. Rule: down 9.9% from 2023/24 academic year to 2024/25 academic year.
2006/07 academic year to 2024/25 academic year
What this measures
The number of pupil enrolments in state-funded schools in England that missed 10% or more of their possible sessions in the academic year.
What this doesn’t measure
The same child counted once if they were enrolled at two schools in the year: the unit is the enrolment.
Important caveat
Figures come from the January school census and cover state-funded schools in England unless the metric says otherwise. A pupil enrolled at more than one school in a year can be counted at each. Absence measures use possible sessions, so a school's timetable affects them; the persistent absence threshold was changed to 10% of sessions from 2015/16 and earlier years are on the old basis.
Revision history
No period of this series has been revised since it was first ingested here. Revisions are recorded automatically when a later release publishes a different figure for the same period.
Source
- Publisher
- Department for Education
- Publication
- Explore Education Statistics: absence, SEN, attainment, apprenticeships, NEET, class sizes
- Release
- Explore Education Statistics: releases to August 2026, published 4 August 2026
- Source file
- dfe_education.json
- File SHA-256
- 301a1eda429205c90247cc4efad5564351b549d7772715a628d8459e360d8b47
- Retrieved
- 3 September 2026
- Sheet
- absence
- Table
- 019d209c-08dc-74b6-9edb-52d521406fcf
- Row
- Absence type=Persistent absence; School type=Total
- Column
- Count of pupil enrolments
- Cell value
- 1340437
- Geography
- E92000001
- Unit
- pupils
- API
- /api/metrics/persistent_absence_pupils · /series · /vintages
Related metrics
Government periods
Change during each government, from the level inherited to the last complete period before it left office. Describes the period; does not attribute cause.
| Labour 2024– | 1,569,3032022/23 academic year | 1,340,4372024/25 academic year | ↓ 14.6% |
| Conservative 2019–2024 | 771,8632018/19 academic year | 1,569,3032022/23 academic year | ↑ 103.3% |
| Conservative 2017–2019 | 707,3902015/16 academic year | 771,8632018/19 academic year | ↑ 9.1% |
| Conservative 2015–2017 | 699,5612013/14 academic year | 707,3902015/16 academic year | ↑ 1.1% |
| Coalition 2010–2015 | 1,184,7042008/09 academic year | 699,5612013/14 academic year | ↓ 41.0% |
- Release
- Explore Education Statistics: releases to August 2026 · publication page
- Last updated
- 4 August 2026
- Next release expected
- Not yet announced (estimated from the usual cadence)