Reporting year 2024

Education and training statistics for the UK

Data guidance

Published 28 November 2024

Description

This document describes the contents of the underlying data files accompanying the ‘education and training’ statistics publication. There is a Methodology document that is linked under ‘Useful information’ at the top of the release, that contains further information on the statistics published here.

Coverage

This release compiles information on education systems across the United Kingdom.

File formats and conventions

Symbols used in the underlying data are as follows:

• ‘z’ when an observation is not applicable
• ‘x’ when data is unavailable for other reasons
• ‘c’ confidential data
• ‘low’ rounds to 0, but is not 0

Data files

All data files associated with this releases are listed below with guidance on their content. To download any of these files, please visit our data catalogue.

Highest qualification among 19-64 year olds

• Filename: uk_highest_qualifications_time_series_rounded.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2016 to 2023
• Content:
  This file contains information on the highest qualification of adults (aged 19-64) in the UK, by sex.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
age	Age
gender	Gender
number	Number of people
percent	Percentage of relevant population group
population_category	Population category

Footnotes

1. Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework (SCQF) levels used in Scotland are not directly comparable to NQF levels used in England/Wales/Northern Ireland. Figures relating to levels 5, 6 and 7 have been provided as the closest match to NQF levels 2, 3 and 4 respectively. Figures for the UK have been calculated using the NQF levels assigned to Scottish qualifications in the Labour Force Survey.
2. 'z' indicates data is not applicable.
3. ONS have faced challenges around a falling number of responses to the Labour Force Survey, which has led to increased sampling variability. Users should be mindful of the greater uncertainty in these estimates, and we would advise caution when interpreting short-term changes. Data has been reweighted from July 2022 onwards which has led to a discontinuity in the timeseries and comparisons of levels prior to this period should be viewed with caution. Full details of the reweighting can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/impactofreweightingonlabourforcesurveykeyindicators/2024 (opens in a new tab)
4. Volumes are rounded to the nearest 1000.
5. Percentage values are rounded. As a result of rounding, percentages may not sum exactly to totals.

Teachers

• Filename: uk_teachers_suppressed.csv
• Geographic levels: National; Regional
• Time period: 2015/16 to 2023/24
• Content:
  This file contains information on the number of teachers in the UK, by sex and school type.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
gender	Gender
phase	School type
t_fte_teachers	Full-time equivalent number of teachers

Footnotes

1. Primary and secondary figures include middle schools as deemed. Secondary schools include all-through schools.
2. In England, special schools include alternative provision schools.
3. In Scotland, nursery figures include all providers of funded Early Learning and Childcare, except childminders.
4. Figures for independent schools in Scotland are unavailable.
5. Figures for independent schools in Wales are unavailable for 2019/20.
6. Totals includes those whose gender identity is other or unclassified.
7. In Northern Ireland, figures are rounded to the nearest 5.

Further and higher education providers

• Filename: uk_post_compulsory_education_institutions.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2015/16 to 2022/23
• Content:
  This file contains information on the number of further and higher education providers in the UK.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
provider_type	Provider type
t_institutions	Number of institutions

Pupil teacher ratios (PTRs)

• Filename: uk_pupil_teacher_ratios.csv
• Geographic levels: National; Regional
• Time period: 2015/16 to 2023/24
• Content:
  This file contains information on pupil to teacher ratios (PTRs) in schools in the UK, by school type.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
phase	School type
pupil_teacher_ratio	Pupil-teacher ratio

Footnotes

1. In England, special schools include alternative provision schools.
2. In England, the primary pupil-teacher ratio includes local authority (LA) maintained nurseries.
3. Where data shows 'x' this indicates data is unavailable, 'z' indicates data is not applicable.

UK NEET data

• Filename: uk_neet.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2001 to 2024
• Content:
  This file contains information in the number and percentage of young adults (aged 16-24) who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) in the UK, by sex.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
age	Age
gender	Gender
number	Number of people
percent	Percentage of relevant population group
population_category	Population category
quarter	Quarter

Footnotes

1. ONS have faced challenges around a falling number of responses to the Labour Force Survey, which has led to increased sampling variability. Users should be mindful of the greater uncertainty in these estimates, and we would advise caution when interpreting short-term changes. Data has been reweighted from July 2022 onwards which has led to a discontinuity in the timeseries and comparisons of levels prior to this period should be viewed with caution. Full details of the reweighting can be found here: https://www.ons.gov.uk/employmentandlabourmarket/peopleinwork/employmentandemployeetypes/articles/impactofreweightingonlabourforcesurveykeyindicators/2024 (opens in a new tab)

Education expenditure UK

• Filename: uk_expenditure.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2015-16 to 2023-24
• Content:
  This file contains information on government expenditure in education in the UK.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
education_function	Education function
expenditure_level	Expenditure level
expenditure_type	Expenditure type
pt_expenditure_of_gdp	Total expenditure as a percentage of GDP
t_expenditure_millions	Total expenditure (millions)
t_expenditure_real_terms_millions	Total expenditure in real terms (millions)

Footnotes

1. In England, secondary education includes expenditure on central government academies which will also cover some schools in primary education.
2. Totals exclude expenditure for education not definable by level.
3. Tertiary capital expenditure in 2023-24 is affected by changes to fair value movement analysis of Student Loans, which will not be applied retrospectively to other years.

Schools

• Filename: uk_schools.csv
• Geographic levels: National; Regional
• Time period: 2015/16 to 2023/24
• Content:
  This file contains information on the number of schools in the UK, by school type.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
phase	School type
t_schools	Number of schools

Footnotes

1. Primary and secondary figures include middle schools as deemed. Secondary schools include all-through schools.
2. In England, special schools include alternative provision schools.
3. In Scotland, nursery figures include all providers of funded Early Learning and Childcare, except childminders.
4. Figures for independent schools in Scotland are unavailable.
5. Figures for independent schools in Wales are unavailable for 2019/20.
6. Independent schools includes non-maintained special schools.

Pupils

• Filename: uk_pupils_suppressed.csv
• Geographic levels: National; Regional
• Time period: 2015/16 to 2023/24
• Content:
  This file contains information on the number of pupils in the UK, by age, sex and school type.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
age	Age
gender	Gender
phase	School type
t_pupils	Number of pupils

Footnotes

1. Primary and secondary figures include middle schools as deemed. Secondary schools include all-through schools.
2. In England, special schools include alternative provision schools.
3. In Scotland, nursery figures include all providers of funded Early Learning and Childcare, except childminders.
4. Figures for independent schools in Scotland are unavailable.
5. Figures for independent schools in Wales are unavailable for 2019/20.
6. Independent schools includes non-maintained special schools.
7. In Scotland, Early Learning and Childcare pupil numbers by sex are unavailable.
8. In Northern Ireland, independent school pupil numbers by sex are unavailable.
9. In Northern Ireland, figures are rounded to the nearest 5.
10. Northern Ireland's pupil data collection in 2023/24 was affected by Action Short of a Strike, leading to lower than expected figures which are not comparable to other years.

Further Education Students

• Filename: uk_post_compulsory_education_fe_students.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2015/16 to 2022/23
• Content:
  This file contains information on the number of further education students in the UK, by sex, age and mode of study.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
age	Age
gender	Gender
mode_of_study	Mode of study
t_students	Number of FE students

Footnotes

1. Totals include further education students at further education colleges or higher education providers.
2. In England, student numbers by mode of study (e.g. full-time, part-time, work-based learning) are unavailable.
3. Totals includes those whose gender identity is other or unclassified.
4. Figures are rounded to the nearest 5 and 'low' indicates a base value of fewer than 2.5. Where data shows 'x' this indicates data is unavailable, 'z' indicates data is not applicable, and 'c' indicates data is suppressed.
5. Welsh totals may not reflect the sum of male and female totals, and overall totals include those who report their gender as 'other'.
6. Trends in further education students may differ depending on the metric being used (enrolments, headcount, full-time equivalents, course length, etc.)

Higher Education Students

• Filename: uk_post_compulsory_education_he_students.csv
• Geographic levels: National
• Time period: 2016/17 to 2022/23
• Content:
  This file contains information on the number of higher education students in the UK, broken down by sex, level of education, mode of study, subject group and domicile.

Variable names and descriptions

Variable names and descriptions for this file are provided below:

Variable name	Variable description
domicile	Domicile
gender	Gender
level	Level of education
mode_of_study	Mode of study
subject	Subject group
t_students	Number of HE students

Footnotes

1. Subject totals do not include Higher Education students on courses in further education colleges in Northern Ireland.
2. 2020/21 student numbers are not comparable to previous years due to a methodology change.
3. Totals includes those whose gender identity is other or unclassified.
4. Figures are rounded to the nearest 5 and 'low' indicates a base value of fewer than 2.5. Where data shows 'x' this indicates data is unavailable, 'z' indicates data is not applicable, and 'c' indicates data is suppressed.
5. Differences in data processing can lead to discrepancies with other sources.