Department for Education · size of class: 1 to 30
Pupils in primary school classes: 1 to 30
2025/26 academic year
3,471,538 pupils
Pupils in primary school classes for 1 to 30 totalled 3,471,538 pupils in the period to 2025/26 academic year, down 1.9% (68,861) on the period before.
- Department for Education dataset
- class_size
- Type of class=Primary; Size of class=1 to 30
- column “Number of pupils”
- 3471538 per period
- published 4 August 2026
2015/16 academic year to 2025/26 academic year
The chart as a table
| Period | Pupils in primary school classes by size of class |
|---|---|
| 2015/16 academic year | 3,654,926 pupils |
| 2016/17 academic year | 3,722,655 pupils |
| 2017/18 academic year | 3,740,536 pupils |
| 2018/19 academic year | 3,738,912 pupils |
| 2019/20 academic year | 3,714,537 pupils |
| 2020/21 academic year | 3,694,739 pupils |
| 2021/22 academic year | 3,675,213 pupils |
| 2022/23 academic year | 3,645,473 pupils |
| 2023/24 academic year | 3,590,293 pupils |
| 2024/25 academic year | 3,540,399 pupils |
| 2025/26 academic year | 3,471,538 pupils |
What this measures
The number of pupils in state-funded primary school classes in England, split by the size of the class they were taught in — up to 30 pupils, 31 to 35, or 36 and more.
Whether a class over 30 is lawful: the infant class size limit of 30 applies only to reception and key stage 1 and has exceptions; nor pupils in independent schools.
Source
- Dataset
- Explore Education Statistics: absence, SEN, attainment, apprenticeships, NEET, class sizes
- Release
- 2026-08-04, published 4 August 2026 · sha256 afb76754d36baa52…
- All values
- Pupils in primary school classes by size of class