Permanent data table

'01 - Absence rates by geographic level' from 'Pupil absence in schools in England'

• Created: 20 September 2022

WARNING - The data used in this table may now be out-of-date as a new release has been published since its creation.

'01 - Absence rates by geographic level' for State-funded primary in England between 2015/16 and 2020/21

	2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2020/21
Overall absence rate	4.0%	4.0%	4.2%	4.0%	3.6%
Authorised absence rate	3.1%	3.0%	3.0%	2.9%	2.7%
Unauthorised absence rate	0.9%	1.1%	1.1%	1.1%	0.9%
Rate of sessions recorded as not attending due to COVID circumstances	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	0.0%	18.7%
Number of overall absence sessions	55,102,906	56,595,915	58,989,873	57,891,483	51,400,577
Number of sessions recorded as not attending due to COVID circumstances	z	z	z	z	264,920,778
Percentage of persistent absentees (10% or more missed)	8.2%	8.3%	8.7%	8.2%	8.8%

Footnotes

1. Sessions recorded as not attending due to COVID circumstances are included as possible sessions in 2020/21 only, but not as an absence within absence rates.

Source: Pupil absence in schools in England, 01 - Absence rates by geographic level

Create your own tables

Use our tool to build tables using our range of national and regional data.