Pupil absence each school week, England
Overall absence in England's state-funded primary, secondary and special schools each school week: the percentage of possible sessions missed for any reason, from schools' daily registers. Each week is labelled by its Monday.
Overall absence, week beginning
5.57%
5 Oct 2026
Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:43 UTCSource: Department for Education. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Data table
57 periods, newest first
| Period | Overall absence, all state-funded schools |
|---|---|
| 5 Oct 2026 | 5.57% |
| 28 Sep 2026 | 5.74% |
| 21 Sep 2026 | 5.9% |
| 14 Sep 2026 | 5.44% |
| 7 Sep 2026 | 4.62% |
| 31 Aug 2026 | – |
| 24 Aug 2026 | – |
| 17 Aug 2026 | – |
| 10 Aug 2026 | – |
| 3 Aug 2026 | – |
| 27 Jul 2026 | – |
| 20 Jul 2026 | – |
| 13 Jul 2026 | 9.01% |
| 6 Jul 2026 | 8.04% |
| 29 Jun 2026 | 6.79% |
| 22 Jun 2026 | 11.76% |
| 15 Jun 2026 | 6.62% |
| 8 Jun 2026 | 6.37% |
| 1 Jun 2026 | 6.98% |
| 25 May 2026 | – |
| 18 May 2026 | 8.91% |
| 11 May 2026 | 6.71% |
| 4 May 2026 | 6.92% |
| 27 Apr 2026 | 6.48% |
| 20 Apr 2026 | 6.13% |
| 13 Apr 2026 | 6.21% |
| 6 Apr 2026 | – |
| 30 Mar 2026 | 8.19% |
| 23 Mar 2026 | 7.31% |
| 16 Mar 2026 | 8.59% |
| 9 Mar 2026 | 6.32% |
| 2 Mar 2026 | 5.84% |
| 23 Feb 2026 | 6.14% |
| 16 Feb 2026 | – |
| 9 Feb 2026 | 7.19% |
| 2 Feb 2026 | 6.79% |
| 26 Jan 2026 | 7.0% |
| 19 Jan 2026 | 6.57% |
| 12 Jan 2026 | 6.22% |
| 5 Jan 2026 | 6.83% |
| 29 Dec 2025 | – |
| 22 Dec 2025 | – |
| 15 Dec 2025 | 8.86% |
| 8 Dec 2025 | 7.95% |
| 1 Dec 2025 | 7.96% |
| 24 Nov 2025 | 7.77% |
| 17 Nov 2025 | 6.77% |
| 10 Nov 2025 | 5.91% |
| 3 Nov 2025 | 6.03% |
| 27 Oct 2025 | – |
| 20 Oct 2025 | 7.29% |
| 13 Oct 2025 | 6.03% |
| 6 Oct 2025 | 5.66% |
| 29 Sep 2025 | 5.98% |
| 22 Sep 2025 | 5.97% |
| 15 Sep 2025 | 5.74% |
| 8 Sep 2025 | 4.74% |
Source and licence
- Publisher
- Department for Education
- Check it yourself
- https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools
- Licence
- Open Government Licence v3.0 – Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
- Retrieved
- 30 October 2026, 11:41 UTC
- Raw files fetched
- https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/63629501-d3ca-c471-9780-ec4cb6fdf172/query?dataSetVersion=3.20&indicators=cg31S,5Zdi9&filters.eq=0oaT5&filters.in=5ezdi&geographicLevels.eq=NAT&pageSize=10000SHA-256 4b022182240dfd22650b03a2c506052de114b7bfd98e6d376c0a5dcc970739ad · 37,076 bytes
- https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/63629501-d3ca-c471-9780-ec4cb6fdf172/query?dataSetVersion=4.2&indicators=cg31S,5Zdi9&filters.eq=0oaT5&filters.in=5ezdi&geographicLevels.eq=NAT&pageSize=10000SHA-256 ac9d168f6afc7e1ebc2a9b466c33b8e639f2ad49e7bc0c989e0efaf70c20f34f · 4,840 bytes
Verification
Verified against source, 30 October 2026, 11:43 UTC Run at 30 October 2026, 11:43 UTC; 57 of 57 figures matched the live source.
| Result | Check | Detail |
|---|---|---|
| Pass | Provenance recorded | Department for Education; Open Government Licence v3.0; retrieved 2026-10-30T11:41:53Z; 2 raw file(s) |
| Pass | Raw files match recorded SHA-256 | 2 of 2 files intact |
| Pass | Re-parsing raw files reproduces figures | 57 of 57 figures and the headline reproduced |
| Pass | Figures are finite numbers | 57 figures, 0 invalid |
| Pass | Live source matches every figure | 57 of 57 figures match exactly after downloading 2 source file(s) again (1 byte-identical); the headline matches |
| Pass | EES data set is current | latest period 2026-10-05 ended 19 days before retrieval (limit 80) |
| Pass | The data set's CSV files agree | 44 of 44 figures match https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/63629501-d3ca-c471-9780-ec4cb6fdf172/csv?dataSetVersion=3.20 and https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/63629501-d3ca-c471-9780-ec4cb6fdf172/csv?dataSetVersion=4.2 |
| Pass | Rate recomputed from session counts | 44 of 44 figures match overall absence ÷ possible sessions in https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/63629501-d3ca-c471-9780-ec4cb6fdf172/csv?dataSetVersion=3.20 and https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/63629501-d3ca-c471-9780-ec4cb6fdf172/csv?dataSetVersion=4.2 |
| Pass | Primary, secondary and special schools add up to all schools | 44 of 44 weeks: primary, secondary and special schools' overall absence and possible sessions add up exactly to all schools' in https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/63629501-d3ca-c471-9780-ec4cb6fdf172/csv?dataSetVersion=3.20 and https://api.education.gov.uk/statistics/v1/data-sets/63629501-d3ca-c471-9780-ec4cb6fdf172/csv?dataSetVersion=4.2 |
| Pass | Source page answers | https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/pupil-attendance-in-schools – HTTP 200 |
Notes
- A session is a morning or an afternoon. Overall absence counts sessions missed with or without permission.
- The DfE recalculates every week of the current academic year in each fortnightly release, as schools update their registers; its analysis suggests a week's absence rate can fall by around 1 percentage point before it settles.
- Weeks without a figure are school holidays, for which the DfE publishes none.
- The series covers this academic year and last, from September 2025 at the earliest. Until 2024/25, when fewer schools shared their data, the DfE weighted its all-schools rate by school type using the spring census, so earlier years are on a different basis.