Aussie kids go Back to School – ABS facts and stats

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MEDIA RELEASE
17 January 2018
Embargoed 11:30am (AEDT)
Aussie kids go Back to School – facts and stats from the ABS

Back-to-School Statistical Fact Sheet from the Australian Bureau of Statistics

The new school year is about to start, so the ABS has put together some statistics to keep in your school backpacks.
  • In 2015-16, households in Australia spent 3.1% of their weekly expenditure on education and it's growing quickly (from 2.5% in 2009-10). Most of this expenditure was for school education (2.1%) and the rest was for tertiary and vocational education (1.0%). Source: ABS Household Expenditure Survey, Australia: Summary of Results, 2015-16 (cat. no. 6530.0).
  • There were around 331,000 children aged 4-5 years enrolled in a preschool program in Australia in 2016. Source: ABS Preschool Education, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4240.0). New data will be released in mid-February.
  • There were around 3,798,000 people enrolled in school in 2016 (about 65% at Government schools). There were also about 309,000 teaching staff, 14,000 specialist support staff, and 157,000 other staff. Source: ABS Schools, Australia, 2016 (cat. no. 4221.0).
  • What happens next when students finish school? ABS data shows 59% of school leavers from 2016 were enrolled in further study in May 2017; about half of those enrolled in further study were also employed in May 2017. Source: ABS Education and Work, Australia, May 2017 (cat. no. 6227.0).
  • We've also done our homework and found in 2016 about 179,000 people aged 15-24 were enrolled in a technical or further education institution (such as a TAFE), while roughly 684,000 were enrolled in a University or other Tertiary institution. Source: ABS Census of Population and Housing, 2016.

Media note:

For more information or media interviews, contact the ABS Media team on 1300 175 070 (8:30am – 5pm Mon-Fri) or email: media@abs.gov.au

When reporting ABS data, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (or ABS) must be attributed as the source.