Persistent and severe absence, England
Percentage of pupil enrolments aged 5 to 15 in state-funded primary, secondary and special schools in England that missed 10% or more of sessions (persistent) or 50% or more (severe), by academic year.
Persistently absent enrolments
18.1%
2024/25
Verified against source, 29 October 2026, 11:49 UTC- Persistent absence
- Severe absence
Source: Department for Education. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
18 periods, newest first
| Period | Persistent absence | Severe absence |
|---|---|---|
| 2024/25 | 18.1% | 2.4% |
| 2023/24 | 20.0% | 2.3% |
| 2022/23 | 21.2% | 2.0% |
| 2021/22 | 22.5% | 1.7% |
| 2020/21 | 12.1% | 1.1% |
| 2018/19 | 10.9% | 0.8% |
| 2017/18 | 11.2% | 0.8% |
| 2016/17 | 10.8% | 0.7% |
| 2015/16 | 10.5% | 0.6% |
| 2014/15 | 11.0% | 0.6% |
| 2013/14 | 10.7% | 0.6% |
| 2012/13 | 13.6% | 0.6% |
| 2011/12 | 13.5% | 0.6% |
| 2010/11 | 16.3% | 0.7% |
| 2009/10 | 17.4% | 0.7% |
| 2008/09 | 18.5% | 0.8% |
| 2007/08 | 18.5% | 0.9% |
| 2006/07 | 19.3% | 1.0% |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Department for Education
- Check it yourself
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 29 October 2026, 11:47 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/019d209c-08dc-74b6-9edb-52d521406fcf/csvSHA-256 d8eb4dfa59b777c5b88afd15eb49f0b3fe52c2cb998b442453c30035237210cc · 497,639 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 29 October 2026, 11:49 UTC Run at 29 October 2026, 11:49 UTC; 36 of 36 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Department for Education; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-29T11:47:12Z; 1 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 1 of 1 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 36 of 36 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 36 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 36 of 36 figures match exactly after downloading 1 source file(s) again (1 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | EES query API agrees | 36 of 36 figures match the EES query API (https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/019d209c-08dc-74b6-9edb-52d521406fcf/query) |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-absence-in-schools-in-england – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- The data set holds no figures for 2019/20, when the pandemic closed schools.