These figures are derived from regular data automatically submitted to the Department for Education (DfE) by participating schools. The data is submitted on a daily basis and includes the attendance codes (opens in a new tab) for each pupil on their registers during the morning and afternoon sessions.
The figures are published as experimental official statistics to give an indicative figure for the absence rate during the 2022/23 academic year. A national level figure was published on 8 September 2022 and from 29 September 2022 the pupil attendance dashboard (opens in a new tab) has been updated fortnightly, providing aggregate metrics on overall absence and reasons for absence estimated at national, regional and local authority level only. These are intended to continue the series that was previously sourced from the daily Educational Settings Survey (EdSet). Due to the timeliness of the data and that they are based on a subset of schools, the figures are estimates that we expect to change as registers are adjusted. They should be viewed as an early indicator for the more detailed but less regular National Statistics on pupil absence (which will include school level breakdowns). The termly National Statistics will also be published on this page in May 2023 (Autumn term 2022/23), October 2023 (Autumn and Summer term 2022/23) and March 2024 (full year 2022/23).
The figures relate to the attendance of 5 to 15 year old (i.e. compulsory school age) pupils in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England.
For further information see the ‘Methodology’ section.
This release covers the academic year to date up to 24 February 2023. On 1 February, there was a national teacher strike. Therefore, no figures for that day have been provided in the dashboard and underlying data. 43% of pupils attended school on the 1 February. This was 58% for state-funded primary and 24% for state-funded secondary schools. For data on how many schools were open on the day, see the School closures during the 2023 teacher strike transparency data (opens in a new tab).
The attendance rate was 93.4% across all schools in the week commencing 20 February 2023. The absence rate was, therefore, 6.6% across all schools.
Absence rate increase towards the end of the Autumn term was driven by illness, which during week commencing 12 December 2022 was 9.1%, up from 2.6% at the start of the term. In the week commencing 20 February 2023, illness absence was 3.1%, slightly lower than the first week of the Spring term (week commencing 2 January 2023) when it was 3.2%. Increase in illness absence at the end of the Autumn term was in line with increases in rates of seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses (opens in a new tab).
By school type, the absence rates across the week commencing 20 February 2023 were:
5.0% in state-funded primary schools (3.5% authorised and 1.5% unauthorised)
8.3% in state-funded secondary schools (4.9% authorised and 3.5% unauthorised)
12.3% in state-funded special schools (8.8% authorised and 3.5% unauthorised)
The data shows that the attendance rate across the academic year to date was 92.4%. The absence rate was, therefore, 7.6% across all schools.
By school type, the absence rates across the year to date were:
6.2% in state-funded primary schools (4.7% authorised and 1.5% unauthorised)
9.2% in state-funded secondary schools (5.9% authorised and 3.2% unauthorised)
13.6% in state-funded special schools (10.4% authorised and 3.2% unauthorised)
Across the year to date, 23.1% of pupil enrolments missed 10% or more of their possible sessions and are therefore identified as persistently absent. By school type, the persistent absence rate across the year to date was:
19.2% in state-funded primary schools
27.4% in state-funded secondary schools
39.9% in state-funded special schools
23.1% represents a fall from 25.1% in Autumn term. The high persistent absence rates are driven by illness towards the end of the Autumn term. UK Health Security Authority data (opens in a new tab) shows that a number of illnesses all peaked at around the same time in December. Typically, illnesses are more spread across the season. Between the end of November and the end of December 2022, persistent absence increased from 21.7% to 25.1%. In Autumn 2022, 13.2% of pupils were persistently absent solely due to illness, a large increase on 5% in Autumn 2019.
Whilst persistent absence is higher than last year, there has been a sharp fall in pupils persistently not attending. This reflects that in Autumn 2020 and Autumn 2021, pupils were being recorded as not attending due to reasons related to coronavirus (e.g. where isolating). Including these sessions shows that there has been a drop in pupils not attending 10% or more sessions overall, from 44.6% in 2020, 32.2% in 2021 to 25.1% in 2022. Since the start of the Spring term, absence rates have decreased and persistent absence rate for the year to date is currently 23.1%.
The pupil attendance dashboard (opens in a new tab) is updated fortnightly. The latest data relates to the week commencing 20 February 2023. The dashboard displays attendance and absence headline figures, and reasons for absence at national, regional and local authority geographic levels. Data is available across state-funded primary, secondary and special schools and can be broken down by individual school type.
Underlying data is available within the “Explore data and files” section of this page.
The latest data relates to the week commencing 20 February 2023 and is available in the pupil attendance dashboard (opens in a new tab). Spring half term holiday differs by local authority but is usually during the week commencing 13 February or the week commencing 20 February. Attendance date is not provided at local authority level for the week when the local authority is on half term holiday. Data is collected on a daily basis and data for the interim weeks between publications is included in year-to-date figures and is available on a daily and weekly basis in the underlying data available on this page (see “Explore data and files”).
The dashboard displays attendance and absence headline figures, and reasons for absence at national, regional and local authority geographic levels. Data is available across primary, secondary and special schools and can be broken down by individual school type.
Attendance rates
The data shows that the attendance rate across the week for all schools was 93.4%, giving an overall absence rate of 6.6%. The attendance rate varied across the week with a peak of 93.8% on Wednesday, before a decline to 92.9% on Friday. The decrease in attendance on a Friday is in line with weekly patterns in historical data.
By school type, the attendance rate across the week was:
95.0% in state-funded primary schools
91.7% in state-funded secondary schools
87.7% in state-funded special schools
Absence rates
Absence rate increase towards the end of the Autumn term was driven by illness, which during week commencing 12 December 2022 was 9.1%, up from 2.6% at the start of the term. In the week commencing 20 February 2023, illness absence was 3.1%, slightly lower than the first week of the Spring term (week commencing 2 January 2023) when it was 3.2%. Increase in illness absence at the end of the Autumn term was in line with increases in rates of seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses (opens in a new tab).
Overall absence has increased the most in secondary schools (from 6.5% at the start of the Autumn term to 8.3% in the most recent week) followed by special schools (from 10.8% to 12.3%). Absence in primary schools has risen from 4.4% to 5.0%.
Authorised absence across the week was 4.2% and by school type this was:
3.5% in state-funded primary schools
4.9% in state-funded secondary schools
8.8% in state-funded special schools
Unauthorised absence across the week was 2.4% and by school type this was:
1.5% in state-funded primary schools
3.5% in state-funded secondary schools
3.5% in state-funded special schools
Users should be aware of the following:
Response rate - 79% of schools have opted-in to submitting data (though note that this has varied across the year), therefore national figures are estimates. Across school types this was: 81% of state-funded primary schools, 73% of state-funded secondary schools and 69% of state-funded special schools.
Estimates for non-response - In recognition that response rates are not equal across school types and, therefore, not representative of the total school population, the total rates for all schools has been weighted based on the Spring 2022 school census.
Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for a particular day to decrease over time. Analysis of data from the Summer 2022 term suggests that this could be a decrease in the absence rate of around 1 percentage point before settling down. Historical figures will be recalculated in each publication.
Data for the Autumn term relates to the period from 12 September 2022 to 16 December 2022.
Trends across the Autumn term
Absence increased towards the end of the Autumn term. In the week commencing 12 December 2022 absence was 14.3%, up from the start of term (week commencing 12 September 2022) when it was 5.4% and the previous peak in the week prior to half term (week commencing 17 October 2022) when it was 7.4%. These changes were mostly driven by illness absence, with illness absence increasing from 2.6% to 9.1% from week commencing 12 September 2022 to week commencing 12 December 2022. This was in line with increases in rates of seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses (opens in a new tab).
Persistent absence rates in the Autumn term were higher than last year. This was driven by illness. The UK Health Security Authority’s data linked above shows that a number of illnesses all peaked at around the same time in December. Typically, illnesses are more spread across the season. Between the end of November and the end of December 2022, persistent absence increased from 21.7% to 25.1%. In Autumn 2022, 13.2% of pupils were persistently absent solely due to illness, a large increase on 5% in Autumn 2019.
Whilst persistent absence is higher than last year, there has been a sharp fall in pupils persistently not attending. This reflects that in Autumn 2020 and Autumn 2021, pupils were being recorded as not attending due to reasons related to coronavirus (e.g. where isolating). Including these sessions shows that there has been a drop in pupils not attending 10% or more sessions overall, from 44.6% in 2020, 32.2% in 2021 to 25.1% in 2022. Since the start of the Spring term, absence rates have decreased and persistent absence rate for the year to date is currently 23.1%.
Attendance rates
The data shows that the attendance rate across the period from 12 September 2022 to 16 December 2023 was 92.1%, giving an overall absence rate of 7.9%.
By school type, the attendance rate across the Autumn term was:
93.5% in state-funded primary schools
90.6% in state-funded secondary schools
86.3% in state-funded special schools
Absence rates
By school type, the authorised absence rate across the Autumn term was:
5.0% in state-funded primary schools
6.3% in state-funded secondary schools
10.7% in state-funded special schools
By school type, the unauthorised absence rate across the Autumn term was:
1.5% in state-funded primary schools
3.1% in state-funded secondary schools
3.1% in state-funded special schools
Persistent absence
Across the Autumn term, 25.1% of pupil enrolments missed 10% or more of their possible sessions and are therefore identified as persistently absent. By school type, the persistent absence rate across the Autumn term was:
21.5% in state-funded primary schools
29.1% in state-funded secondary schools
40.7% in state-funded special schools
The persistent absence rate across the Autumn term due to illness absence alone was 13.2%.
Users should be aware of the following:
Response rate - 79% of schools have opted-in to submitting data (though note that this has varied across the year), therefore national figures are estimates. Across school types this was: 81% of state-funded primary schools, 73% of state-funded secondary schools and 69% of state-funded special schools.
Estimates for non-response - In recognition that response rates are not equal across school types and, therefore, not representative of the total school population, the total rates for all schools has been weighted based on the Spring 2022 school census.
Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for a particular day to decrease over time. Analysis of data from the Summer 2022 term suggests that this could be a decrease in the absence rate of around 1 percentage point before settling down. Historical figures will be recalculated in each publication.
Data for the year to date relates to the period from 12 September 2022 to 24 February 2023. Data is available in the pupil attendance dashboard (opens in a new tab) and the underlying data available on this page (see “Explore data and files”). The dashboard displays attendance and absence headline figures, and reasons for absence at national, regional and local authority geographic levels. Data is available across primary, secondary and special schools and can be broken down by individual school type.
Trends across the year
Absence peaked at 14.3%, in the final full week of the Autumn term (week commencing 12 December 2022), up from the start of the academic year (week commencing 12 September 2022) when it was 5.4% and the previous peak in the week prior to the Autumn half term (week commencing 17 October) when it was 7.4%. Absence has fallen since the end of the Autumn term and was 6.6% in the week commencing 20 February 2023. Increase in illness absence at the end of the Autumn term was in line with increases in rates of seasonal flu and other seasonal respiratory illnesses (opens in a new tab).
The persistent absence rate for the year to date is currently 23.1%. This is a fall from 25.1% in Autumn term. The high persistent absence rates are driven by illness towards the end of the Autumn term. The UK Health Security Authority’s data linked above shows that a number of illnesses all peaked at around the same time in December. Typically, illnesses are more spread across the season. Between the end of November and the end of December 2022, persistent absence increased from 21.7% to 25.1%. In Autumn 2022, 13.2% of pupils were persistently absent solely due to illness, a large increase on 5% in Autumn 2019.
Whilst persistent absence is higher than last year, there has been a sharp fall in pupils persistently not attending. This reflects that in Autumn 2020 and Autumn 2021, pupils were being recorded as not attending due to reasons related to coronavirus (e.g. where isolating). Including these sessions shows that there has been a drop in pupils not attending 10% or more sessions overall, from 44.6% in 2020, 32.2% in 2021 to 25.1% in 2022. Since the start of the Spring term, absence rates have decreased and persistent absence rate for the year to date is currently 23.1%.
Attendance rates
The data shows that the attendance rate across the period from 12 September 2022 to 24 February 2023 was 92.4%, giving an overall absence rate of 7.6%.
By school type, the attendance rate across the year to date was:
93.8% in state-funded primary schools
90.8% in state-funded secondary schools
86.4% in state-funded special schools
Absence rates
By school type, the authorised absence rate across the year to date was:
4.7% in state-funded primary schools
5.9% in state-funded secondary schools
10.4% in state-funded special schools
By school type, the unauthorised absence rate across the year to date was:
1.5% in state-funded primary schools
3.2% in state-funded secondary schools
3.2% in state-funded special schools
Persistent absence
Across the year to date, 23.1% of pupil enrolments missed 10% or more of their possible sessions and are therefore identified as persistently absent. By school type, the persistent absence rate across the year to date was:
19.2% in state-funded primary schools
27.4% in state-funded secondary schools
39.9% in state-funded special schools
Users should be aware of the following:
Response rate - 79% of schools have opted-in to submitting data (though note that this has varied across the year), therefore national figures are estimates. Across school types this was: 81% of state-funded primary schools, 73% of state-funded secondary schools and 69% of state-funded special schools.
Estimates for non-response - In recognition that response rates are not equal across school types and, therefore, not representative of the total school population, the total rates for all schools has been weighted based on the Spring 2022 school census.
Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for a particular day to decrease over time. Analysis of data from the Summer 2022 term suggests that this could be a decrease in the absence rate of around 1 percentage point before settling down. Historical figures will be recalculated in each publication.
These statistics are experimental statistics undergoing evaluation. They have been developed under the guidance of the Head of Profession for Statistics and published to involve users and stakeholders at an early stage in assessing their suitability and quality.
Experimental official statistics have been produced as far as possible in line with the Code of Practice for Statistics.
This can be broadly interpreted to mean that these statistics are:
managed impartially and objectively in the public interest
