Permanent data table

'Pupil characteristics - Free school meals' from 'Schools, pupils and their characteristics'

• Created: 29 June 2021

WARNING - The data used in this table may now be out-of-date as a new release has been published since its creation.

'Pupil characteristics - Free school meals' for Non-maintained special school, Pupil referral unit, State-funded nursery, State-funded primary, State-funded secondary and 2 other filters in England between 2015/16 and 2020/21

		2015/16	2016/17	2017/18	2018/19	2019/20	2020/21
State-funded nursery	Headcount	3,520	3,272	2,771	2,806	2,837	3,199
	FSM - Percentage of pupils	8.0	7.5	6.5	6.6	6.7	8.4
State-funded primary	Headcount	672,295	663,436	649,147	745,453	835,776	1,008,164
	FSM - Percentage of pupils	14.6	14.1	13.8	15.8	17.7	21.6
State-funded secondary	Headcount	420,516	414,308	405,483	468,779	543,187	660,476
	FSM - Percentage of pupils	13.2	12.9	12.4	14.1	15.9	18.9
State-funded special school	Headcount	38,604	40,043	41,715	46,210	50,959	57,925
	FSM - Percentage of pupils	36.6	36.5	36.2	38.0	39.8	43.2
Non-maintained special school	Headcount	907	951	832	838	861	1,050
	FSM - Percentage of pupils	23.8	25.3	22.9	22.8	22.7	26.8
Pupil referral unit	Headcount	6,201	6,393	6,685	6,855	7,168	6,784
	FSM - Percentage of pupils	41.3	40.8	40.0	42.5	46.6	53.1
Total	Headcount	1,142,043	1,128,403	1,106,633	1,270,941	1,440,788	1,737,598
	FSM - Percentage of pupils	14.3	14.0	13.6	15.4	17.3	20.8

Footnotes

1. Totals include state-funded nursery, primary, secondary and special schools, non-maintained special schools and pupil referral units. Does not include independent schools

Source: Schools, pupils and their characteristics, Pupil characteristics - Free school meals

Create your own tables

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