Estimates of future school place demand - national, regional, local authority, planning area
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Estimates of future school places needed to meet modelled demand. Estimates are based on capacity as at 1 May 2025, forecasts and planned changes to school capacity as reported during summer 2025. PA data is only available in the data file.
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Data set details
- Theme
- Pupils and schools
- Publication
- School capacity
- Release
- Academic year 2024/25
- Release type
- Number of rows
- 162,537
- Geographic levels
- Local authority, National, Regional
- Indicators
- Estimated number of places needed: Additional need as positives and spare places as negatives
- Estimated number of places needed: Additional need only
- Filters
- Phase and year group
- Time period
- 2025/26 to 2031/32
Data set preview
| time_period | time_identifier | geographic_level | country_code | country_name | region_code | region_name | old_la_code | new_la_code | la_name | planning_area_code | planning_area_name | education_phase | nc_year_group | pupil_forecast | estimated_capacity | la_planned_places | central_programme_places | additional_need_minus_spare_places | additional_need_only_places |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 202526 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Total | Total | z | 25937.10528 | |||||||||||
| 202526 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Primary | Primary total | z | 13717.24016 | |||||||||||
| 202526 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Primary | Reception | z | 726.130173 | |||||||||||
| 202526 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Primary | Year 01 | z | 633.446787 | |||||||||||
| 202526 | Academic year | National | E92000001 | England | Primary | Year 02 | z | 1009.336948 |
Variables in this data set
| Variable name | Variable description |
|---|---|
| additional_need_minus_spare_places | Estimated number of places needed: Additional need as positives and spare places as negatives |
| additional_need_only_places | Estimated number of places needed: Additional need only |
| nc_year_group | Phase and year group |
Footnotes
- Estimates are based on capacity as at 1 May 2025, forecasts and planned changes to school capacity as reported during summer 2025, supplemented with DFE internal data on centrally funded programmes due to add or remove school places. Estimates are calculated at planning area and year group and then aggregated.
- Estimates are provided from 2025/26 to 2029/30 for primary (Reception to Year 6) and from 2025/26 to 2031/32 for secondary (Year 7 to Year 11).
- "Estimated places needed: Additional need as positives and spare places as negatives" are not produced at a national and regional level because they would be unrepresentative of school place demand. They would suggest unrealistic levels of spare places, because demand in specific areas would be lost in the sum total.
- A description of how these estimates have been derived and how to interpret them is provided in the school place planning estimates technical guidance accompanying this release (see supporting files under 'Explore data and files’).
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Contact us
If you have a specific enquiry about Estimates of future school place demand - national, regional, local authority, planning area statistics and data:
Pupil Place Planning team
Email: SCAP.PPP@education.gov.ukContact name: Robert Miller