Data set from Widening participation in higher education

Free School Meals, Sex and Ethnic Group - Region

Latest data

Published 9 July 2026

Last updated 9 July 2026

HE Participation by Free School Meal eligibility, Sex and Ethnic Group - Regional level by age 18, 19, 20, 25 and 30

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Data set details

• Theme: Higher education
• Publication: Widening participation in higher education
• Release: Academic year 2024/25
• Number of rows: 35,733
• Geographic levels: Regional
• Indicators:
  • HE Participation Rate
  • HE Participation Rate (High Tariff)
  • Number of HE Students
• Filters:
  • Entry age
  • Ethnic Group
  • Free School Meal Status
• Time period: 2005/06 to 2021/22

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Data set preview

Table showing first 5 rows, from underlying data

time_period	time_identifier	geographic_level	country_code	country_name	region_code	region_name	entry_age	sex	fsm_status	ethnicity_major	participation_rate	high_tariff_participation_rate	number_of_he_students	number_of_high_tariff_he_students	number_of_students
201112	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000007	London	By Age 20	Female	All Other Pupils	White	52.5	18.8	7250	2598	13802
201112	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000007	London	By Age 20	Female	All Other Pupils	Mixed / Multiple ethnic groups	64.3	21.3	1409	466	2192
201112	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000007	London	By Age 20	Female	All Other Pupils	Unknown	65.8	27.9	283	120	430
201112	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000007	London	By Age 20	Female	All Other Pupils	Asian / Asian British	80.3	25.3	4326	1364	5386
201112	Academic year	Regional	E92000001	England	E12000007	London	By Age 20	Female	All Other Pupils	Black / African / Caribbean / Black British	75.5	14.4	4099	781	5426

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Variables in this data set

Table showing first 5 of 9 variables

Variable name	Variable description
entry_age	Entry age
ethnicity_major	Ethnic Group
fsm_status	Free School Meal Status
high_tariff_participation_rate	HE Participation Rate (High Tariff)
number_of_he_students	Number of HE Students

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Footnotes

1. Where "no data" is shown, this indicates that there is no current record of HE participation in that category for the cohort of 15-year-olds
2. For the 2005/06 cohort, the rate for 18-year-olds is understated. See Methodology for more information
3. Cohorts of 15-year-olds in the period 2017/18 to 2019/20 who achieved A levels between 2020/21 and 2022/23 had higher attainment than typical years due to alternative processes put in place during the Covid pandemic. This led to more students in these cohorts being accepted to HE and in particular to high tariff HE.

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Free School Meals, Sex and Ethnic Group - Region statistics and data:

Widening participation statistics

Email: HE.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: John Simes

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