This data includes primary, secondary, combined (primary and secondary) and special schools, across government and non-government school sectors.

Notes and caveats

• Categories used in tables and graphs showing ‘school type’ are:
  • "Primary" - school delivers primary education
  • "Secondary" - school delivers secondary education
  • "Combined" - school delivers both primary and secondary education
  • "Special" - students may include primary students, secondary students, ungraded students or a combination of primary, secondary and ungraded students.
• Data is drawn from the National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC) collected in August each year and published by the ABS, Schools, Australia.
• In 2020 and 2021, restrictions due to COVID-19 may have impacted on NSSC data. However, schools delivering programs remotely or that were temporarily closed due to COVID-19 at the time of the collection were included in the count. Overall, it is estimated that the impacts of COVID-19 on the data were minor. For further details see Schools, Australia 2020 and 2021.
• From 2015, primary education comprises Foundation (pre-Year 1) followed by Years 1-6 in New South Wales (NSW), Victoria (Vic.), Queensland (Qld), Western Australia (WA), Tasmania (Tas.), Northern Territory (NT) and Australian Capital Territory (ACT). Secondary education consists of Years 7-12 in these jurisdictions.
• In 2015, Year 7 in Qld and WA was moved from a primary school year to a secondary school year.
• Until 2019 in South Australia (SA), primary education comprised Foundation (pre-Year 1) followed by Years 1-7. Secondary education consisted of Years 8-12.
• In 2019, Year 7 was moved from a primary school year to a secondary school year in some South Australian non-government schools. In 2020, three government schools also moved Year 7 to become the first year of secondary schooling. Year 7 in SA will be moved progressively from a primary school year to a secondary school year (from 2022 for most government schools).
• In 2022, all remaining South Australian government and non-government schools completed the transition to Year 7 as the starting school grade of secondary schooling. This meant that 2022 is the first year South Australian schools across all affiliations had Year 7 as their starting secondary school grade.
• Categories used in tables and graphs showing "school sector" are "government", "Catholic" and "independent". In some tables, the category "total non-government" (total of Catholic and independent data) is also used.
• In Schools Australia, and in this publication, Catholic non-systemic schools are counted as Catholic rather than as independent.

• See Glossary for definitions of school, school level, school sector, school type and special school and for further information on the NSSC.

Source: ABS, Schools, Australia
This information relates to Part 1 of the National Report on Schooling in Australia.