Schools

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Data on government and non-government students, staff and schools.

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Reference period
2023

Key statistics

In Australia in 2023:

  • 4,086,998 students were enrolled in 9,629 schools.
  • the Year 7/8 to 12 full-time apparent retention rate was 79.1%.
  • the average student to teaching staff ratio for all schools was 13.1 students to one teacher. 

Students

In 2023:

  • 4,086,998 students were enrolled in schools across Australia, an increase of 44,486 students (1.1%) compared with 2022.
  • the majority of students were enrolled in government schools (64.0%), followed by Catholic schools (19.7%) and independent schools (16.3%).

Over the five years to 2023, total student enrolments increased by 3.5%. Independent schools recorded the largest increase (14.1%), followed by Catholic schools (4.8%) and government schools (0.7%).

Table 1. Student enrolments by school affiliation, Australia, 2019 to 2023
 202320222021202020192019-23 (% change)
Government2,614,0942,605,8262,622,7552,629,1432,594,8300.7
Catholic806,323795,368787,181778,605769,7194.8
Independent666,581641,318620,781599,226584,26214.1
Total4,086,9984,042,5124,030,7174,006,9743,948,8113.5

 

The highest annual growth rates of student enrolments in 2023 were in:

  • Western Australia: 2.1%
  • Victoria: 2.0%
  • Australian Capital Territory: 0.9%
  • Queensland: 0.8%

Tasmania had a fall in growth rate of -0.6%.

Population growth rates for 5 to 19 year olds in 2023 were: 

  • Western Australia: 2.8%
  • Victoria: 2.5%
  • Queensland: 1.9%.

The lowest was in the Northern Territory (0.1%).

Further information on population growth rates can be accessed from National, state and territory population, June 2023.

In 2023, the annual growth rate for school enrolments was 1.1% (44,486 more students) since 2022:

  • government school enrolments recorded an increase of 0.3% (8,268 more students).
  • non-government school enrolments recorded an increase of 2.5% (36,218 more students).


Primary school enrolments increased by 12,593 students compared with the year before (a change of 0.6%):

  • government primary school enrolments remained relatively unchanged 0.0% (48 more students).
  • non-government primary school enrolments increased 1.8% (12,545 more students).


Secondary school enrolments increased by 31,893 students (a change of 1.8%):

  • government secondary school enrolments increased 0.8 % (8,220 more students).
  • non-government secondary school enrolments grew by 3.2 % (23,673 more students).

In 2023 the number of Full-Fee Paying Overseas Students (FFPOS) contributed to the higher growth rate, increasing by over a third (36.6%) from 2022 to 21,124 students. Between 2019-2022 there was a drop of 41.9%, primarily due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • FFPOS numbers are collected in the National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC) but not published in the Schools data cubes.
  • The above calculations exclude the FFPOS numbers for Northern Territory government schools, as 2019 and 2020 data unavailable in the NSSC. Graph 5 does include Northern Territory government schools FFPOS data for 2021-2023.

In the year ending 30 June 2023, overseas migration contributed a net gain of 518,000 people to Australia's population. This was the largest net overseas migration estimate since records began. (see Overseas Migration).

Data unavailable for Northern Territory government schools in 2019 and 2020.

The proportion of students enrolled in non-government schools in 2023 was:

  • highest in the Australian Capital Territory (39.8%) and South Australia (37.9%).
  • lowest in the Northern Territory (26.8%).
  • lower for students enrolled in schools in very remote areas (11.6%) than for remote areas (22.9%), outer regional areas (29.5%), inner regional areas (36.1%) and major cities (37.2%).

Map 1. Student enrolment counts by state and territory and school affiliation, 2023

A map of Australia showing student enrolment counts by state and territory and affiliation for 2023. Western Australia 298,308 Government student enrolments; 151,255 Non-Government enrolments. Northern Territory 29,198 Government student enrolments; 10,710 Non-Government enrolments. South Australia 172,137 Government student enrolments; 104,911 Non-Government enrolments. Victoria 657,252 Government student enrolments; 378,730 Non-Government enrolments. Tasmania 54,329 Government student enrolments; 26,728 N

A map of Australia showing student enrolment counts by state and territory and affiliation for 2023. Western Australia 298,308 Government student enrolments; 151,255 Non-Government enrolments. Northern Territory 29,198 Government student enrolments; 10,710 Non-Government enrolments. South Australia 172,137 Government student enrolments; 104,911 Non-Government enrolments. Victoria 657,252 Government student enrolments; 378,730 Non-Government enrolments. Tasmania 54,329 Government student enrolments; 26,728 Non-Government enrolments. New South Wales 786,434 Government student enrolments; 462,695 Non-Government enrolments. Australian Capital Territory 46,177 Government student enrolments; 30,476 on-Government student enrolments. Queensland 570,259 Government student enrolments; 307,399 Non-Government enrolments.

Retention rates

In 2023:

  • the Year 7/8 to 12 full-time apparent retention rate for Australia decreased to 79.1%, from 80.5% in 2022.
  • the apparent retention rate for females (83.2%) was higher than for males (75.2%).

In 2023:

  • the Australian Capital Territory had the highest apparent retention rate at 89.2%, and the Northern Territory had the lowest at 51.7%.
  • independent schools had the highest apparent retention rate (94.3%), followed by Catholic schools (81.1%) and government schools (73.6%).

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students

In 2023:

  • there were 264,935 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students enrolled in Australian schools, 3.6% more than in 2022.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students accounted for 6.5% of all students.
  • four in five (81.8%) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students were enrolled in government schools.
  • the Year 7/8 to 12 full-time apparent retention rate for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students was 55.9%. This is 0.8 percentage points more than a decade ago (55.1% in 2013). The 2023 rate decreased from 56.9% in 2022.
  • the Northern Territory had the highest proportion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at 39.3%.

Schools

In 2023:

  • there were 9,629 schools in Australia. This represents a net increase of 15 schools since 2022, with an increase of 13 government and 4 independent schools, and a decrease of 2 Catholic schools.
  • Queensland reported the largest increase in total school counts (6 schools), followed by New South Wales (5 schools) and Victoria and Western Australian (4 schools).
Table 2. School counts by state and territory, 2022 to 2023
 NSWVic.QldSAWATas.NTACTAust
20233,1252,2831,7977121,1202611941379,629
20223,1202,2791,7917151,1162621941379,614

 

Staff

In 2023:

  • there were 311,655 full-time equivalent (FTE) teaching staff in Australian schools, an increase of 1.4% from 2022, of which 224,094 were female and 87,561 male.
  • of these, 157,767 teachers were in primary schools, and 153,888 teachers were in secondary schools.
  • there was a higher proportion of male teachers in secondary schools (38.6%) than primary schools (17.9%), compared to a higher proportion of female teachers in primary schools (82.1%) than secondary schools (61.4%).

The student to teaching staff ratio for all schools in 2023 was 13.1 students to one teacher, and was higher in primary schools (14.3 students to one teacher) than secondary schools (11.8 students to one teacher).

Independent schools had a lower student to teacher ratio in 2023 (11.8 students to one teacher) than government and Catholic schools (13.4 students to one teacher).

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Data files

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number 4221.0.

Methodology

Scope

Data on government and         non-government primary, secondary and special schools, students and staff.

Geography

Data available for:
 

  • Australia
  • States and territories
  • Remoteness areas

Source

The National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC) is an administrative data collection sourced from commonwealth, state and territory education departments. 

Collection method

Data on government and         non-government schools are collected from administrative school enrolment databases and collated by the ABS through the NSSC.

Concepts, sources and methods

The NSSC is based on data collected from the national school census. 

The annual census is held on the first Friday in August by each state and territory education department and the non-government education systems.

History of changes

Not applicable for this release. 

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