Pupils in secondary school classes: record highs and lows
The extremes of pupils in secondary school classes as published by Department for Education, across the 11 periods held here (2015/16 academic year to 2025/26 academic year). Each record is a published figure, not a computed one, and the scope is this series — not “ever”.
Highest published
3,375,1462023/24 academic year
Lowest published
2,963,3592015/16 academic year
The full series
The chart as a table
| Period | Pupils in secondary school classes |
|---|---|
| 2015/16 academic year | 2,963,359 pupils |
| 2016/17 academic year | 2,994,796 pupils |
| 2017/18 academic year | 3,030,930 pupils |
| 2018/19 academic year | 3,090,498 pupils |
| 2019/20 academic year | 3,167,115 pupils |
| 2020/21 academic year | 3,241,481 pupils |
| 2021/22 academic year | 3,295,442 pupils |
| 2022/23 academic year | 3,348,459 pupils |
| 2023/24 academic year | 3,375,146 pupils |
| 2024/25 academic year | 3,369,207 pupils |
| 2025/26 academic year | 3,359,927 pupils |
What a record here is, and is not
A record is the extreme of the periods this site holds for the current series, at each period’s newest published release. Earlier series measured under different methods are not compared against it. Money is in cash terms: a record set years ago stands against the money of its own year.