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Department for Education · Explore Education Statistics: absence, SEN, attainment, apprenticeships, NEET, class sizes

Persistent absence

2024/25 academic year Final

18.1%

Persistent absence was 18.1% in 2024/25 academic year, down 1.8 percentage points from 20% in 2023/24 academic year.

▼ −1.8 percentage points against 2023/24 academic year (previous period)

  1. Department for Education percentage
  2. 2024/25 academic year
  3. published 4 August 2026
  4. 019d209c-08dc-74b6-9edb-52d521406fcf
  5. row “Absence type=Persistent absence; School type=Total”
  6. column “Percentage of pupil enrolments”
  7. cell value 18.14307

The series is falling. Rule: down 9.1% from 2023/24 academic year to 2024/25 academic year.

2006/07 academic year to 2024/25 academic year

Persistent absence: 2006/07 academic year to 2024/25 academic yearLabourLabourCoalitionCoalitionConservativeConservativeConservativeConservativeLabour0%10%20%20102015202020252006/07 academic year: 19.3% percent · published 4 August 20262007/08 academic year: 18.5% percent · published 4 August 20262008/09 academic year: 18.5% percent · published 4 August 20262009/10 academic year: 17.4% percent · published 4 August 20262010/11 academic year: 16.3% percent · published 4 August 20262011/12 academic year: 13.5% percent · published 4 August 20262012/13 academic year: 13.6% percent · published 4 August 20262013/14 academic year: 10.7% percent · published 4 August 20262014/15 academic year: 11% percent · published 4 August 20262015/16 academic year: 10.5% percent · published 4 August 20262016/17 academic year: 10.8% percent · published 4 August 20262017/18 academic year: 11.2% percent · published 4 August 20262018/19 academic year: 10.9% percent · published 4 August 20262020/21 academic year: 12.1% percent · published 4 August 20262021/22 academic year: 22.5% percent · published 4 August 20262022/23 academic year: 21.2% percent · published 4 August 20262023/24 academic year: 20% percent · published 4 August 20262024/25 academic year: 18.1% percent · published 4 August 2026
Published valueProvisional or revisedLatestShaded bands: governments (see labels)Hover or use arrow keys to read a value

What this measures

The percentage of pupil enrolments in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England that missed 10% or more of their possible sessions in the academic year.

People often confuse this with

Percentage change ≠ Percentage-point changeA rate moving from 4% to 5% has risen by one percentage point and by 25%. This site describes changes in rates in points, never as a percentage of a percentage.

What this doesn’t measure

Why pupils were absent, or absence in independent schools and alternative provision, which the measure excludes.

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
Percentage of pupil enrolments
Cell value
18.14307
Geography
E92000001
Unit
percent
API
/api/metrics/persistent_absence_rate · /series · /vintages

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 2024–21.2%2022/23 academic year18.1%2024/25 academic year↓ 14.5%
Conservative 2019–202410.9%2018/19 academic year21.2%2022/23 academic year↑ 95.3%
Conservative 2017–201910.5%2015/16 academic year10.9%2018/19 academic year↑ 3.5%
Conservative 2015–201710.7%2013/14 academic year10.5%2015/16 academic year↓ 1.6%
Coalition 2010–201518.5%2008/09 academic year10.7%2013/14 academic year↓ 42.3%

Full comparison with chart

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)