15+ Illuminating UK Education Statistics & Facts for 2023
The United Kingdom is home to four of the top ten universities in the world, so the glory of its education system does not need any special introductions. These UK education statistics will provide you with the latest insights on the exact number of schools, teachers, students, and their demographics. Read on to find out how well-educated the British population is.
Top 10 UK Education Statistics and Facts
The total number of maintained schools in 2021/22 was 29,682.
The total number of students in the UK in 2021/22 was 10,624,720.
636,799 FTE teachers were practicing in the UK in 2021/22.
74% of the UK teaching workforce in 2021/22 was female.
The total number of students enrolled in higher education studies in 2021/22 in the UK was 2,862,620.
Female HE students accounted for 57% of all British HE students in the last five years.
530,460 British HE students in 2021/22 were studying business and management studies.
UK students achieved a total of 919,940 of HE qualifications in 2021/22.
83% of Brits have NQF level 2 or higher as their lowest education qualification.
50.1 % of Britons aged between 25 and 64 have tertiary education attainment.
Education Statistics for the 2021/22 School Year in the UK
The total number of maintained schools in 2021/22 was 29,682.
The above figure includes all the primary (20,788), middle (23), secondary (4,204), nursery (3,117), and special (1,550) schools in the UK.
There are an additional 2,487 non-maintained mainstream and 56 non-maintained special schools in the country, bringing the total figure to 32,226, or 38 more than the number of schools in the 2020/21 school year.
(Gov UK)
The total number of students in the UK in 2021/22 was 10,624,720.
UK school statistics show that the total number of students in maintained schools for this school year has increased by 0.8%, or 78,700, compared to the year before.
Data suggests that the number of students has increased in England (0.9%), Scotland (0.5%), and Northern Ireland (0.7%), while it decreased in Wales, by 0.8%, or 3,600 students.
Growth was also recorded in the number of students in state-funded nurseries (1.1%), secondary schools (2.1%), and special schools (4.6%).
Only the number of students in primary schools has dropped by 0.3% compared to the previous school year.
(Gov UK)
In 2021/22, the largest number, or 5,494,541 students in the UK, were in maintained primary schools.
United Kingdom education statistics further reveal that another 4,202,041 students were in maintained secondary, 173,435 in maintained special, 136,045 in maintained nurseries, and 22,516 in maintained middle schools.
There were also 592,177 students in non-maintained mainstream and 3,965 in non-maintained special schools.
Data suggests that 93% of the students in the maintained primary schools were between four and ten, and 98% of the students in the maintained secondary schools were between 11 and 17 years old.
(Gov UK)
636,799 FTE teachers were practicing in the UK in 2021/22.
Education statistics for the UK confirm that the largest number, or 563,831, of the FTE teachers, were employed by maintained, while 72,968 by non-maintained schools.
The largest number of FTE teachers practicing in maintained schools, or 267,517, were teaching in primary schools, while the number of FTE teachers teaching in secondary schools was 258,558.
Another 29,844 FTE teachers practiced in maintained special, 2,022 in nurseries, and 1,271 in maintained middle schools. Lastly, the total number of FTE teachers teaching in non-maintained schools was 72,968.
(Gov UK)
74% of the UK teaching workforce in 2021/22 was female.
According to the gender and education statistics for the UK, the number of female FTE teachers in the country is traditionally significantly higher than the number of male FTE teachers.
In the 2021/22 school year, there were 465,494 female and 170,078 male FTE teachers across all 32,226 schools in the UK.
The biggest discrepancy was recorded among the primary schools, where 226,265 female teachers accounted for almost 85% of the total number, whereas only 40,459 teachers were male.
(Gov UK)
The student-teacher ratio in secondary schools in Scotland was only 12.4 in 2021/22.
Education statistics by UK country show that Scotland has the lowest student-teacher ratio in both primary (15.1) and secondary schools (12.4).
Northern Ireland had the second-lowest student-teacher ratio in secondary schools, with 15.6, but had the highest ratio for primary schools, with 21.4.
The ratios for secondary schools in England and Wales were almost the same, with 16.7 and 16.8, respectively. Both countries had very similar ratios for primary schools as well, with 20.6 (England) and 21 (Wales).
(Gov UK)
UK Higher Education Statistics
The total number of students enrolled in higher education studies in 2021/22 in the UK was 2,862,620.
Historical data suggests that the number of higher education students in the UK has increased by 4% compared to the 2,751,865 students enrolled in 2020/21.
Data reveals that 71% of the students, or 2,042,310, were enrolled in undergraduate, while 29%, or 820,310 students, were enrolled in post-graduate studies.
There were another 146,065 students enrolled in further education studies, which brings the total number of students who continued studying after leaving school to 3,007,545.
(HESA)
In 2021/22, 81.84% of British HE students were enrolled in HE providers from England.
Higher education statistics show that over eight in ten, or exactly 2,342,775 British students, were studying in HE providers from England.
Scotland is the country with the second-largest share of 10.52%, or 301,230 students, while another 5.21%, or 149,045 students, were enrolled in HE providers from Wales.
Only 69,565 students, or 2.43% of the total, were studying in HE providers from Northern Ireland.
(HESA)
Female HE students accounted for 57% of all British HE students in the last five years.
According to the UK’s male vs female education statistics, the majority of HE students are traditionally female, and in recent years, their share is always 57%.
As for age brackets, HE students younger than 20 are the most prevalent group, with a 37% share, followed by students between 21 and 24, who accounted for 28% of the total.
Interestingly, the share of HE students aged over 30 is significantly higher, at 23%, than students between 25 and 29, who accounted for the smallest share of 13% of all HE students in the UK.
(HESA)
White students accounted for 73% of all HE students in the UK in 2021/22.
UK ethnicity and education statistics reveal that the total number of White HE students for the above school year was 1,563,145.
Asian HE students accounted for the second-largest share of 12%, or exactly 264,660, which is not surprising considering the UK immigration statistics, which indicate substantial shares of immigrants moving from India and Pakistan to the UK.
Furthermore, 171,620, or 8% of the total HE students, were Black, and another 96,675, or 5%, had mixed ethnicities.
(HESA)
530,460 British HE students in 2021/22 were studying business and management studies.
UK education statistics indicate that business and management was the most popular subject studied by British HE students this year, particularly among male students, with 280,875 of them having enrolled in it.
Subjects allied to medicine were the most popular for female students, with 291,555 enrolled in them, while another 249,135 of the female students were enrolled in business and management studies as well.
Veterinary sciences, with 12,145, and geography, earth, and environmental studies, with 12,225 students enrolled, were the least popular subjects.
(HESA)
UK students achieved a total of 919,940 of HE qualifications in 2021/22.
As statistics about education in the United Kingdom reveal, the above figure indicates a 5% growth compared to 2020/21.
A total of 529,360 undergraduates accounted for the larger part, or 58%, of the qualifications, while the share of postgraduates was 42% or 390,585 in absolute values.
Moreover, 363,600 of the postgraduates took taught courses, and 26,980 took research courses, 22,925 of which were doctorates.
Business and management was the subject that the largest number of undergraduates and taught postgraduates achieved qualifications in, with 83,595 and 90,800, while engineering and technology was the most prevalent subject for research postgraduates, with 3,540.
(HESA)
UK Education Facts About the British Population
83% of Brits have NQF level 2 or higher as their lowest education qualification.
Data reveals that 84% of British women and 82% of British men meet the above criteria.
Furthermore, 66% of Brits have NQF level 3 or higher as their lowest qualification, with women again being more educated than men, with a 68% vs 65% ratio.
Finally, 47% of Brits have NQF level 4 or higher as their lowest qualification, with 49% of women and 45% of men meeting these criteria.
UK education inequality statistics reveal that British women are more educated than British men across all NQF levels, which is aligned with the fact that women in the UK have lower unemployment rates than men.
(Gov UK)
50.1 % of Britons aged between 25 and 64 have tertiary education attainment.
This percentage increases to 57.5% when only Brits between 25 and 34 are considered.
Furthermore, 26.4% of Brits from the 25 to 64 age bracket have a bachelor’s degree, while 1.6% from the same age group have a doctoral, considered the highest level of education in the UK.
Data reveals that 90.7 % of the Brits with a doctoral or an equivalent tertiary education degree are employed, though they also have a high inactivity rate of 7.4 %.
On the other hand, a significantly smaller percentage of 63.9 % of Britons without upper secondary education are employed.
(OECD)
13.5% of Brits with a bachelor’s or an equivalent education degree earn more than twice the median salary in the UK.
However, the percentage of Britons with a master’s, doctoral, or equivalent education degree who earn more than twice the median UK salary is considerably larger at 19.3%.
Data on the earnings of the UK population by education level indicate a gender pay gap among British men and women. Namely, female workers between 25 and 64 without upper secondary education earn 57.2%, while those with upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education from the same age group earn 56% of men’s earnings.
(OECD)
The Summary
The UK has one of the best private school systems in the world, though its public school system could benefit from some further adjustments.
Interestingly, women are constantly the more educated gender in the country, and the most dominant in teaching roles.
While there are some excellent indicators, like the fact that the average education level in the UK is post-secondary education, there is always room for improvement.
Education in the UK FAQ
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