Pupils eligible for free school meals, Wales
Official statistics
The share of pupils aged 5 to 15 in Wales's maintained schools who were eligible for free school meals, each school year since 2003/04, from the January school census.
Pupils eligible for free school meals
20.5%
2025/26
Verified against source, 1 November 2026, 21:07 UTCSource: Welsh Government. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
22 periods, newest first
| Period | Pupils eligible for free school meals |
|---|---|
| 2025/26 | 20.5% |
| 2024/25 | 20.3% |
| 2023/24 | 21.3% |
| 2022/23 | 22.2% |
| 2021/22 | 23.3% |
| 2020/21 | 22.9% |
| 2019/20 | 19.9% |
| 2018/19 | 18.3% |
| 2017/18 | 17.4% |
| 2016/17 | 17.8% |
| 2015/16 | 18.4% |
| 2014/15 | 18.8% |
| 2013/14 | 19.1% |
| 2011/12 | 19.3% |
| 2010/11 | 19.7% |
| 2009/10 | 18.9% |
| 2008/09 | 17.8% |
| 2007/08 | 17.0% |
| 2006/07 | 17.4% |
| 2005/06 | 17.5% |
| 2004/05 | 18.4% |
| 2003/04 | 19.0% |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Welsh Government
- Check it yourself
- https://stats.gov.wales/en-GB/a875cf2c-6619-4aed-a160-9fe010ad6752
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 1 November 2026, 21:04 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://api.stats.gov.wales/v2/a875cf2c-6619-4aed-a160-9fe010ad6752SHA-256 8482df55b364493ed7f566192722e86201638a43cd82075529b2e05ee42bd440 · 6,173 bytes
- https://api.stats.gov.wales/v2/a875cf2c-6619-4aed-a160-9fe010ad6752/data?format=csvSHA-256 8cc67e2d90fc39d55f252aa1008a62130bf9ee08fdbe1224920734141a063a81 · 132,440 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 1 November 2026, 21:07 UTC Run at 1 November 2026, 21:07 UTC; 22 of 22 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Welsh Government; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-11-01T21:04:46Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 22 of 22 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 22 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 22 of 22 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (2 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | StatsWales dataset is current | latest period 2026-01-31 ended 274 days before retrieval (limit 600) |
| Pass | StatsWales JSON edition agrees | 22 of 22 figures match the 1,794 rows of the JSON edition from https://api.stats.gov.wales/v2/a875cf2c-6619-4aed-a160-9fe010ad6752/data?format=json&page_size=10000&page_number=1 |
| Pass | The share is eligible pupils over all pupils | 22 of 22 cases of school year, StatsWales's share equals Wales's eligible pupils over all its pupils, rounded half up to StatsWales's one decimal place |
| Pass | The 22 councils add up to Wales | 22 of 22 cases of school year, the 22 councils' eligible pupils sum to Wales's |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://stats.gov.wales/en-GB/a875cf2c-6619-4aed-a160-9fe010ad6752 – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- Eligibility only: StatsWales also counts pupils transitionally protected, who keep free school meals though no longer eligible, and the hub leaves them out so the series runs back to 2003/04. StatsWales gives no figures for 2012/13. England's free school meals figures are the DfE's, on their own pages.