Key UK education statistics

BESA has researched and collated the essential data relating to schools within the UK into this handy guide.

BESA routinely conducts additional research into school spending patterns and budgets for our members, and runs briefing sessions and seminars to keep suppliers up to date with latest developments. Find out more about becoming a BESA member.

How many schools are there in the UK?

There are currently32,163schools in the UK. Of these,3,079are nurseries or early-learning centres,20,806are primary schools,23are middle schools and4,190are secondary schools. There are2,461independent schools,1,546special schools,57non-maintained special schools and348pupil referral units (PRUs).

Most of the UK’s schools are in England. There are24,413 schools in England – including388nurseries,16,791primary schools,3,458secondary schools,2,366independent schools,1,005special schools,57non-maintained special schools and348pupil referral units (PRUs).

There are1,553schools in Wales – including9nursery schools,1,219primary schools,23middle schools,182secondary schools,80independent schools and40special schools.

There are5,052schools in Scotland, including2,630 early learning centres,2,001primary schools,357secondary schools and111special schools.

There are1,123schools in Northern Ireland, including94nursery schools,784primary schools,192secondary schools,39special schools and14independent schools.

Department of Education; Welsh Government; Scottish Government; Northern Ireland Department of Education (2021/2021)

Download the data tables, including a breakdown of numbers of pupils by age here (2021) – updated statistics will be released in November 2022.

How many Multi Academy Trusts are there?

There are currently 1,170 Multi Academy Trusts in England that manage at least two schools. 29 MATs have 26 or more schools, 85 have between 12-25 schools and 259 have 6-11 schools. The majority of MATs – 598– have five or fewer schools.

Source: The Education Company (2019) This report can be downloaded by BESA members here.

Find out more about BESA membership.

How many pupils are there in the UK?

There are currently 10,320,811 full and part time pupils at school in the UK. 8,890,357 in England, 469,176 in Wales, 794,364 in Scotland, 341,402 in Northern Ireland.

Source: Department for Education; Welsh Government; Scottish Government; Northern Ireland Department of Education (2019/2020)

Download the data tables, including a breakdown of numbers of pupils by age here(2020) – updated statistics will be released in November 2021

How many teachers are there in the UK?

There are currently 624,520 full-time teachers in the UK. 264,804 work in primary schools, 247,378 work in secondary schools, 76,442 work in independent schools and 27,883 work in special schools.

There are 530,172 teachers working in England, 23,594 teachers working in Wales, 52,247 teachers working in Scotland and 18,506 teachers working in Northern Ireland.

30.5% of these teachers are male, and 69.5% are female. However, at primary school level, this rises to 82.4% female – a proportion that is steadily increasing.

Source: Department for Education; Welsh Government; Scottish Government; Northern Ireland Department of Education (2019/2020)

Download the data tables, including a breakdown of numbers of pupils by age here(2020) – updated statistics will be released in November 2021

How big is a UK school’s budget?

The average primary school budget in 2019/20is £1,162,000, a 3.1% increase on the previous year. The average secondary school budget in 2019/20is £4,914,000, a 1.9% increase on the previous year.

Source: BESA/C3 Education (2021). Resources in English maintained schools 2021. This report can be downloaded by BESA membershere

How much is spent on resources each year?

The average primary school spent £42,970 on school resources (recurrent and capital) in 2019/20a 0.6% increase on the previous year. The average secondary school spent £179,780 on resources in 2019/20 a 1.4% increase on the previous year.

Source: BESA/C3 Education (2021). Resources in English maintained schools 2021. This report, which includes a detailed breakdown on the areas of resources expenditure, can be downloaded by BESA membershere.

Find more about BESA’s Resource our Schools campaign.

How many computers are there in UK classrooms?

In total there are 3,326,000 computers in UK classrooms in 2019. There are 1,657,000 in primary schools and 1,669,000 in secondary schools. The average primary school has 75.4 computers and the average secondary school has 386.6.

Source: BESA ICT in UK Maintained Schools, Published September 2020. This report, which includes a detailed breakdown on types of devices and projections for 2020/2021, can be downloaded by BESA members here

How many FE institutions are there?

In total, there are 381 FE colleges in the UK, of which 94 are sixth-form colleges. 335 of these are in England, 13 in Wales, 27 in Scotland and 6 in Northern Ireland.

Source: Department for Education; Welsh Government; Scottish Government; Northern Ireland Department of Education (2019/2020)

Download the data tables, including a breakdown of numbers of pupils by age here(2020) – updated statistics will be released in November 2021