Department for Education · size of class: 36 plus
Pupils in primary school classes: 36 plus
2025/26 academic year
31,820 pupils
Pupils in primary school classes for 36 plus totalled 31,820 pupils in the period to 2025/26 academic year, down 5.0% (1,670) on the period before.
- Department for Education dataset
- class_size
- Type of class=Primary; Size of class=36 plus
- column “Number of pupils”
- 31820 per period
- published 4 August 2026
2015/16 academic year to 2025/26 academic year
The chart as a table
| Period | Pupils in primary school classes by size of class |
|---|---|
| 2015/16 academic year | 40,102 pupils |
| 2016/17 academic year | 39,088 pupils |
| 2017/18 academic year | 39,422 pupils |
| 2018/19 academic year | 41,723 pupils |
| 2019/20 academic year | 41,363 pupils |
| 2020/21 academic year | 33,981 pupils |
| 2021/22 academic year | 37,245 pupils |
| 2022/23 academic year | 36,684 pupils |
| 2023/24 academic year | 34,980 pupils |
| 2024/25 academic year | 33,490 pupils |
| 2025/26 academic year | 31,820 pupils |
What this measures
The number of pupils in state-funded primary school classes in England, split by the size of the class they were taught in — up to 30 pupils, 31 to 35, or 36 and more.
Whether a class over 30 is lawful: the infant class size limit of 30 applies only to reception and key stage 1 and has exceptions; nor pupils in independent schools.
Source
- Dataset
- Explore Education Statistics: absence, SEN, attainment, apprenticeships, NEET, class sizes
- Release
- 2026-08-04, published 4 August 2026 · sha256 afb76754d36baa52…
- All values
- Pupils in primary school classes by size of class