Pupil Numbers

Pupils in ISC schools account for around 80% of the total number of pupils in independent schools in the UK.  The UK independent sector as a whole educates around 628,000 children in around 2,600 schools. The independent sector educates around 6.5% of the total number of schoolchildren in the UK (and over 7% of the total number of schoolchildren in England) with the figure rising to more than 18% of pupils over the age of 16.

There are now 514,531 children in ISC schools in the UK and Republic of Ireland. Of these:

• 68,131 are boarders and 446,400 are day pupils
• 262,424 are boys and 252,107 are girls
• 45,962 are nursery age (0-4)
• 159,976 are primary age (5-10)
• 223,259 are senior age (11-15)
• 85,334 are sixth form age (16-19)

21,533 pupils are non-British with parents living overseas. In 2009 there were 9,433 non-British pupils with parents living overseas who were new to ISC schools that academic year.  Approximately one third of these were from Hong Kong and China and over 30% were from Europe. Detailed figures can be found in the ISC Census 2009.