Department for Education · Explore Education Statistics: absence, SEN, attainment, apprenticeships, NEET, class sizes · 3 values
Pupils in secondary school classes by size of class
The number of pupils in state-funded secondary 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.
latest 12 months to 2025/26 academic year; 1 periods summed · total 3,359,927 pupils · published 4 August 2026
1 to 30 is the largest size of class at 84% of the total.
| Size of class | Latest 12 months | Share | Previous 12 months | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 to 30 | 2,809,227 | 83.6% | 2,844,074 | ▼ 1.2% |
| 31 to 35 | 524,510 | 15.6% | 501,132 | ▲ 4.7% |
| 36 plus | 26,190 | 0.8% | 24,001 | ▲ 9.1% |
Source
- Dataset
- Explore Education Statistics: absence, SEN, attainment, apprenticeships, NEET, class sizes · sheet class_size
- Rows
- Type of class=Secondary; Size of class=Total; values are the sum of the published rows for each size of class and period.
- Caveat
- Whether large classes are unlawful — no statutory limit applies to secondary classes; nor pupils in independent schools.
- Parent metric
- Pupils in secondary school classes
- API
- /api/metrics/secondary_class_pupils_by_size/vintages