Department for Education

Autumn and spring term 2025/26

Pupil absence in schools in England

Pupil absence, including overall, authorised and unauthorised absence and persistent absence by reason and pupil characteristics for the full academic year.

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• Published: 15 October 2026

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• Featured tables

  Featured tables are pre-prepared tables created from a statistical release's data sets. They provide statistics that are regularly requested by users and can be adapted to switch between different categories.

• Data sets: download or create tables

  Data sets present comprehensive open data from which users can create their own tables using the EES table tool or download a zipped CSV file.

• Data guidance

  Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.

• Data catalogue

  Alternatively use our data catalogue to search and filter for specific data sets from this release or our entire library, providing full data summaries, data previews and access to API data sets.

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Featured tables

Featured tables are pre-prepared tables created from a statistical release's data sets. They provide statistics that are regularly requested by some users (such as local councils, regional government or government policy teams) and can be adapted to switch between different categories (such as different geographies, time periods or characteristics where available).

6 featured tables

• Overall absence rate by school type since autumn and spring terms 2020/21

  Overall absence rate for state-funded primary, state-funded secondary and special schools, in autumn and spring terms combined from 2020/21 to 2025/26

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• Absence rates by reason

  Absence rates by reason between 2020/21 autumn and spring term and 2025/26 autumn and spring term

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• Rates of persistent and severe absence by school type

  Rates of persistent and severe absence by school type, 2020/21 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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• Absence rates by region

  Absence rates by region, England, 2024/25 Autumn and spring term and 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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• Absence rates by local authority

  Absence rates by local authority, 2024/25 Autumn and spring term and 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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• Absence rates by pupil characteristics

  Absence rates by pupil characteristics, 2024/25 Autumn and spring term and 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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Data sets: download or create tables

Data sets present comprehensive open data from which users can create their own tables using the EES table tool or download a zipped CSV file.

12 data sets available for download

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• Absence by geographic level - autumn and spring terms combined

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Absence information for all enrolments in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools including information on overall absence, persistent absence and reason for absence for pupils aged 5-15.

  • Number of rows: 6,929
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence rate
    • Authorised holiday rate
    • Authorised other rate
  • Filters:
    • School type
  • Time period: 2016/17 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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• Absence - school level - autumn and spring terms combined

  School

  School level absence information for all enrolments in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools including information on overall absence, persistent absence and reason for absence for pupils aged 5-15.

  • Number of rows: 191,017
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence rate
    • Authorised holiday rate
    • Authorised other rate
  • Filters:
    • School type
  • Time period: 2016/17 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

  Data set information page
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• Absence by pupil characteristics - autumn and spring terms combined

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Absence information by pupil characteristics including special education need (SEN), free school meal (FSM) eligibility, language, year group, sex and ethnicity.

  • Number of rows: 309,774
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence rate
    • Authorised absence rate for persistent absentees
    • Number of authorised absence sessions
  • Filters:
    • Characteristic
    • School type
  • Time period: 2016/17 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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• Absence by geographic level - termly

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Termly absence information for all enrolments in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools including information on overall absence, persistent absence and reason for absence for pupils aged 5-15.

  • Number of rows: 13,523
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence rate
    • Authorised holiday rate
    • Authorised other rate
  • Filters:
    • School type
  • Time period: 2018/19 Autumn term to 2025/26 Spring term

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• Absence by pupil characteristic - spring term

  National

  Absence information by pupil characteristics including special education need (SEN), free school meal (FSM) eligibility, language, year group, sex and ethnicity.

  • Number of rows: 1,420
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence rate
    • Authorised absence rate for persistent absentees
    • Number of authorised absence sessions
  • Filters:
    • Characteristic
    • School type
  • Time period: 2020/21 Spring term to 2025/26 Spring term

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• Absence as a percentage of possible sessions by band

  National

  The number of pupil enrolments by overall, authorised and unauthorised absence percentage point bands. This shows absence as a percentage of all possible sessions.

  • Number of rows: 3,672
  • Indicators:
    • Number of all pupil enrolments that fall into that per cent band for COVID-19 non-attendance
    • Number of all pupil enrolments that fall into that per cent band for authorised absence
    • Number of all pupil enrolments that fall into that per cent band for illness absence
  • Filters:
    • Absence percentage band
    • School type
  • Time period: 2016/17 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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• Absence in state-funded alternative provision - autumn and spring terms combined

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Absence information for all enrolments in state-funded alternative provision (including pupil referral units) with information on overall absence, persistent absence and reason for absence for pupils aged 5-15.

  • Number of rows: 1,819
  • Indicators:
    • Authorised absence rate
    • Number of authorised absence sessions
    • Number of authorised holiday sessions
  • Time period: 2013/14 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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• Enrolments with one or more sessions of absence - autumn and spring terms combined

  Local authority, National, Regional

  The number of pupil enrolments with one or more sessions of absence, including by reason for absence.

  • Number of rows: 5,795
  • Indicators:
    • Number of enrolments with at least one absence session due to agreed family holiday
    • Number of enrolments with at least one absence session due to arriving late
    • Number of enrolments with at least one absence session due to exclusion
  • Filters:
    • School type
  • Time period: 2016/17 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

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• Enrolments with one or more sessions of absence, school level - autumn and spring terms combined

  School

  The number of enrolments with one or more sessions of absence, including by reason for absence, at school level.

  • Number of rows: 191,017
  • Indicators:
    • Number of enrolments with at least one absence session due to agreed family holiday
    • Number of enrolments with at least one absence session due to arriving late
    • Number of enrolments with at least one absence session due to exclusion
  • Filters:
    • School type
  • Time period: 2016/17 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

  Data set information page
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• Absence for four year olds - autumn and spring terms combined

  Local authority, National, Regional

  Overall absence for all enrolments in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools for pupils who were aged 4 at the start of the academic year.

  • Number of rows: 5,189
  • Indicators:
    • Number of overall absence sessions
    • Number of pupil enrolments
    • Number of schools
  • Filters:
    • School type
  • Time period: 2016/17 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

  Data set information page
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• Absence for four year olds, school level - autumn and spring terms combined

  School

  School level overall absence for all enrolments in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools for pupils who were aged 4 at the start of the academic year.

  • Number of rows: 147,833
  • Indicators:
    • Number of overall absence sessions
    • Number of pupil enrolments
    • Number of sessions possible
  • Filters:
    • School type
  • Time period: 2016/17 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

  Data set information page
  Create table

• Absence by pupil ethnicity and FSM eligibility - autumn and spring terms combined

  National

  Absence information broken down by ethnicity and Free School Meals.

  • Number of rows: 240
  • Indicators:
    • Number of overall absence sessions
    • Number of overall absence sessions for persistent absentees (10% or more missed)
    • Number of persistent absentees (10% or more missed)
  • Filters:
    • FSM eligibility
    • Minor ethnic groups
  • Time period: 2023/24 Autumn and spring term to 2025/26 Autumn and spring term

  Data set information page
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Data guidance

Description of the data sets included in this release, including information on data sources, coverage, quality and any data conventions used.

Description

This document describes the data included in the ‘Pupil absence in schools in England’ accredited official statistics release’s underlying data files. The methodology should be referenced alongside this data. It provides information on the data sources, their coverage and quality as well as explaining methodology used in producing the data.

Coverage

This release provides information on the levels of overall, authorised and unauthorised absence in:

• state-funded primary schools
• state-funded secondary schools
• special schools

It includes:

• reasons for absence
• absence by pupil characteristic
• rates of persistent and severe absence
• separate absence information for state-funded alternative provision (including pupil referral units, alternative provision academies and free schools)

The information is based on pupil level absence data collected via the school census.

File formats and conventions

Rounding and Suppression

This dataset has not had suppression applied. Rates are presented to two decimal places in the release but greater precision is included in the underlying data files

Conventions

The following convention is used throughout the underlying data. 

‘x’  Not available.

‘z’  Not applicable

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Pupil absence in schools in England statistics and data:

Attendance and exclusions statistics team

Email: schools.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Attendance and exclusions statistics team

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Phone: 0370 000 2288

Opening times

Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm (closed on bank holidays)

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Contact us

If you have a specific enquiry about Pupil absence in schools in England statistics and data:

Attendance and exclusions statistics team

Email: schools.statistics@education.gov.uk
Contact name: Attendance and exclusions statistics team

Press office

If you have a media enquiry:

Telephone: 020 7783 8300

Public enquiries

If you have a general enquiry about the Department for Education (DfE) or education:

Phone: 0370 000 2288

Opening times

Monday to Friday from 9.30am to 5.30pm (closed on bank holidays)