Pupil attendance in schools
Fortnightly data on pupil attendance, including by reason, phase and geography.
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Background information
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 new tab) for each pupil on their registers during the morning and afternoon sessions.
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.
The figures are published as Official Statistics to give an indicative figure for the absence rate during the 2025/26 academic year, from the 08 September 2025. For the full 2024/25 academic year and termly pupil absence data, including by characteristics please see this historical publication.
Headline facts and figures
This release covers the 2025/26 academic year up to 20 March 2026.
The attendance rate (proportion of possible sessions attended) was 91.35% across all schools in the week commencing 16 March 2026. The absence rate was, therefore, 8.65% across all schools.
By school type, the absence rates across the week commencing 16 March 2026 were:
- 6.85% in state-funded primary schools (5.55% authorised and 1.30% unauthorised)
- 10.43% in state-funded secondary schools (6.80% authorised and 3.63% unauthorised)
- 14.56% in state-funded special schools (11.00% authorised and 3.55% unauthorised)
Absence was 2.03 percentage points higher across all schools in the week commencing 16 March 2026 than in the equivalent week in the last academic year (week commencing 17 March 2025). This has been driven by a 1.70 percentage point increase in authorised absence and a 0.33 percentage point increase in unauthorised absence. Friday 20 March 2026 marked Eid al-Fitr celebrations and, as a result, there were higher levels of absence due to authorised religious observances in the latest week.
By school type, the absence rates across the 2025/26 academic year to date were:
- 5.17% in state-funded primary schools (3.80% authorised and 1.36% unauthorised)
- 8.13% in state-funded secondary schools (5.15% authorised and 2.98% unauthorised)
- 12.95% in state-funded special schools (9.54% authorised and 3.41% unauthorised)
Latest data - week commencing 16 March 2026
Access the Pupil attendance and absence in schools in England: data dashboard (opens in new tab) here.
The latest data relates to the week commencing 16 March 2026 and is available in the pupil attendance dashboard (opens in new tab). 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.
The data shows that the attendance rate across the week for all schools was 91.35%, giving an overall absence rate of 8.65%. The absence rate varied across the week with a low of 6.21% on Wednesday, and a peak of 16.82% on Friday.
The peak in absence on a Friday is in line with patterns seen throughout 2024/25 and previous years. The peak also coincided with Eid al-Fitr celebrations, resulting in higher levels of absence due to authorised religious observances.
By school type, authorised religious absence rates across the week commencing 16 March 2026 were:
- 2.00% in state-funded primary schools
- 1.75% in state-funded secondary schools
- 1.66% in state-funded special schools
- 1.88% across all state-funded schools
London had the highest overall absence rate at 10.43%, mainly driven by authorised religious absence which was 4.16%.
Users should be aware of the following:
- Response rate - Of schools participating in the School Census, 99% provided information on the latest full day of data (20 March 2026). Therefore national figures are estimates. Across school types this was: 99% of state-funded primary schools, 97% of state-funded secondary schools and 98% of state-funded special schools. The response rate may vary at certain points of the year due to different term dates. It also became mandatory for schools to share attendance data with the DfE from the start of the 2024/25 academic year, meaning the number of schools reporting may change over time.
- Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for particular days to decrease over time. Analysis of data from the Summer 2022 term suggests that the absence rate could decrease around 1 percentage point before settling down. Historical figures from week 37 onwards will be recalculated in each publication.
From the start of the 2024/25 academic year, it became mandatory for schools to share attendance data (opens in new tab) with the DfE. If you are a school that is not already sharing your daily attendance data, you need to approve this in your Wonde portal. This will also give you, your local authority and your multi-academy trust (if applicable) access to daily attendance reports (opens in new tab) to help identify pupils needing attendance support earlier.
Autumn term
Access the Pupil attendance and absence in schools in England: data dashboard (opens in new tab) here
Data for autumn term 2025/26 was published in the Week 2 2026 release and relates to the period from 08 September and 20 December 2025.
Academic year to date
Access the Pupil attendance and absence in schools in England: data dashboard (opens in new tab) here.
Data for the academic year 2025/26 relates to the period from 08 September 2025 to 20 March 2026. Data from across the year to date is available in the pupil attendance dashboard (opens in new tab) and the data catalogue on this page (see “Explore data and files”).
Overall absence across the 2025/26 academic year to date was 6.68% and the rate of persistent absence (pupils who miss 10% or more of their possible sessions) was 18.26%.
Overall absence was 4.75% in the first week of the academic year and generally increased across the autumn term to a peak of 8.87% in the final week of term (week commencing 15 December 2025). Overall absence was 6.85% in the first week of the spring term and remained between 6-7% across the spring term before rising to 8.65% in the most recent week (week commencing 16 March 2026).
The Friday of the latest week marked Eid al-Fitr celebrations which resulted in higher absence due to authorised religious observance. On this day, overall absence reached 16.82%, the highest of any school day so far this academic year. It also had the highest authorised absence rate, with absence for religious observance peaking at 9.43%.
Most of the increases in absence across the year have been driven by illness. Rates rose from 1.89% at the start of the autumn term to a peak of 4.74% in the week commencing 1 December 2025. Illness absence then fell to 2.83% in the first week of the spring term, before rising again to 3.55% in the week commencing 9 February, the week preceding spring half-term for most schools. Following the half-term break, illness absence declined to 2.69%, but has gradually increased since, reaching 3.14% in the latest week of the spring term.
Users should be aware of the following:
- Response rate - Of schools participating in the School Census, 99% provided information on the latest full day of data (20 March 2026). Therefore national figures are estimates. Across school types this was: 99% of state-funded primary schools, 97% of state-funded secondary schools and 98% of state-funded special schools. The response rate may vary at certain points of the year due to different term dates. It also became mandatory for schools to share attendance data with the DfE from the start of the 2024/25 academic year, meaning the number of schools reporting may change over time.
- Reporting lag - Schools update their registers continually and attendance codes change, resulting in absence rates for particular days to decrease over time. Analysis of data from the Summer 2022 term suggests that the absence rate could decrease around 1 percentage point before settling down. Historical figures from week 37 onwards will be recalculated in each publication.
From the start of the 2024/25 academic year, it became mandatory for schools to share attendance data (opens in new tab) with the DfE. If you are a school that is not already sharing your daily attendance data, you need to approve this in your Wonde portal. This will also give you, your local authority and your multi-academy trust (if applicable) access to daily attendance reports (opens in new tab) to help identify pupils needing attendance support earlier.
About this release
Schools can use the ‘Compare your attendance (opens in new tab)’ dashboard to compare with other schools in the local authority. This has been updated to show data for this current academic year. Use it to compare absence and unauthorised absence for your school, as well as special educational needs and free school meals pupils.
The pupil attendance dashboard (opens in new tab) will be updated fortnightly, providing aggregate metrics on overall absence and reasons for absence estimated at national, regional and local authority level only. Due to the timeliness of the data and that they are based on a subset of schools, 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 frequent Accredited Official Statistics on pupil absence (which include school level breakdowns). The Accredited Official Statistics are updated termly, with the latest data published published on 26 March 2026 relating to the 2024/25 academic year, including data on characteristics.
Contact us
If you have a specific enquiry about Pupil attendance in schools statistics and data:
School Census Statistics Team
Email: schools.statistics@education.gov.ukContact name: School Census Statistics Team
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If you have a media enquiry:
Telephone: 020 7783 8300
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