Indicators

School leaver data forms the basis of a number of measures, including highest attainment, school leaver destinations (when combined with tertiary data), and retention at school. For a simple summary of each of these measures please read the appropriate education sector indicator.

Interactive dashboard

The buttons at the top of the dashboard control what is on the bottom axis of the graph. To filter the data use any of the Region, School or Student filters on the left. To switch between the filters use the buttons titled "Region", "School" and "Student". By default the dashboard only shows data from the most recent year. To select other years use the dropdown in the top left (under “Filters”).

Ethnicity shows the ethnic group or groups a student identifies with. For school leaver data this is total response, that is, leavers are counted in each ethnic group they identify with. This means that you cannot sum the different ethnic groups to get a total as some students will be counted multiple times. To avoid this we have added a Total value for ethnicity, where individuals are only counted once. By default Ethnicity is set to Total.

You can expand the dashboard by pressing the ⤢ icon in the bottom right corner of the dashboard.

Read the instructions (pdf 151kB) for more guidance on using the interactive dashboard.

Time series data

These spreadsheets provide numbers and percentages of students by different highest attainment levels for a range of dimensions (such as region, school authority, ethnicity) across time in a simple, easy to use format.

Pivot tables

These pivot tables allow you to create your own tables by any combination of variables. Includes the option of displaying number of school leavers by highest attainment for a range of variables, such as, region, school authority, and ethnicity.

Machine readable data

The following data have been provided in a format (txt) that can easily be processed by a computer. It contains the same data that are in the school leaver pivot table.

School leaver data technical notes

The measures

Inclusive and exclusive criteria

School leavers in 2024 are students that permanently left school to enter the workforce and/or undertake further education and training sometime between 1 March 2024 and the last day of February 2025 (inclusive). School leavers are identified using ENROL. Students counted as school leavers are:

• Domestic students who were aged less than 19 in their first enrolment in ENROL; including alternative education students, students 15 or over before 1 March 2025 and students attending teen parent units.
• Students with leave reason; 'end of schooling' or 'early leaving exemption'
• Students with leave reason 'transferred to another school in New Zealand' or 'transferred to homeschooling' but did not re-enrol in ENROL
• Students with leave reason 'gone overseas permanently', who meet the age criteria
• Students who attend for a period of time at the start of 2025 but leave before 1 March 2025 are counted with 2024 leavers.

This excludes:

• Returning students (aged 19 or more) with a gap in their attendance
• Exchange students
• International fee-paying students
• Students who successfully transferred to homeschooling or another school in New Zealand
• Deceased students

Alternative education students are counted with the school that enrolled them in alternative education, this may not be the school that manages their enrolment while they are in alternative education. This is to reflect that the enrolling school is responsible for ensuring the students’ education needs are met.

Interpretation Issues

Literacy and Numeracy: In 2013, students were required to obtain 10 literacy and 10 numeracy credits at level 1 to achieve an NCEA Level 1 qualification. This is an increase on the 8 credits previously required to achieve NCEA Level 1. No historical adjustment has been made for this change. In 2023 learners could meet their literacy and numeracy requirements using several methods, including the 20-credit co-requisite specific to te reo matatini, pāngarau, literacy, and numeracy. For more information about the phasing in of the new requirements see Standards approved for NCEA Co-requisite during the transition period (2024-2027).

University Entrance Award requirements: A change in the requirements for the University Entrance Award came into effect in 2014. This strengthening of the requirements means care needs to be taken when comparing results before 2014 with 2014 onwards.

Ethnicity: Total response ethnicity has been used for school levers. Total response ethnicity is when people who have been identified in more than one ethnic group have been counted in each ethnic group. For the New Zealand total, individuals are counted only once.

For this data European/Pākehā refers to people who affiliate as New Zealand European, Other European or European (not further defined). For example, this includes and is not limited to people who consider themselves as Australian (excluding Australian Aborigines), British and Irish, American, Spanish, and Ukrainian.

Definitions and data dimensions

Student age

The age of the student (in years) as at their last day of attendance. Students are legally required to attend schooling until age 16, unless they are granted an early leaving exemption. However, a number of students are aged 14 or 15 on their last day of attendance and do not re-enrol by 1 March 2025. All learners included in the school leaver statistics were aged 15 or more on 1 March 2025.

Student gender

The gender of the students, as recorded in ENROL.

Ethnic group

The ethnic group(s) the student identifies with, as recorded in the schools roll return (or ENROL if no roll return data for learner). The ethnic group data is presented at level 1 and total response. That is, leavers are counted once in each ethnic group they identify with.

Students can be counted in up to three different ethnic groups but only once in the total, therefore the sum of the different ethnic groups will likely exceed the total.  Ethnic groups should not be combined as some students will be counted twice.

School sector

Schools are grouped (by school type) into four main sectors of schooling education: Secondary, Composite, Special, and Not Applicable.

Not applicable includes students in homeschooling, special education leavers from primary schools, and students with no school sector information available.

School type

The type of the school, for example, Composite (Year 1 to 15), Secondary (Year 7 to 15), Secondary (Year 9 to 15) the leaver left from.

Not applicable includes students in homeschooling, special education leavers from primary schools, and students with no school type information available.

School authority

The ownership of the school for example State, State-Integrated, and Private.

School gender

The gender of the students that a school caters for, for example, co-educational, or single sex. A small number of single sex schools can have some students of the opposite sex on their roll. These students can only access the education they need at these 'opposite sex' schools i.e. adults or special needs students.

Decile

The last year decile was calculated was 2022.

The decile assigned to the school. Students from low socio-economic communities face more barriers to learning than students from high socio-economic communities. Schools that draw their roll from these low socio-economic communities are given greater funding to combat these barriers. The mechanism used to calculate and allocate this additional funding is most often known as school deciles.

Schools are assigned a socio-economic score based on five census derived socio-economic factors. Decile 1 schools are the 10% of schools with the greatest proportion of students from the most socio-economically deprived areas. Decile 10 schools are the 10% of schools with the greatest proportion of students from the least socio-economically deprived areas.

School Equity Index Bands and School Equity Index Groups

From 2023, the Ministry of Education has developed a new method of reporting on socioeconomic trends in education statistics. Two ways of grouping schools into broad socioeconomic categories are being used, School Equity Index Bands and School Equity Index Groups. These categories estimate the extent to which, on average, students at a school face socioeconomic barriers that could get in the way of their school achievement.

School Equity Index Bands and Groups are derived from the Schooling Equity Index Number. There are seven School Equity Index Bands, each containing approximately the same number of schools. Schools are placed into a band based on their School Equity Index number. There are three School Equity Index Groups formed by collapsing the seven School Equity Index Bands. More information on the Equity Index Bands and Groups can be found here.

In order to create a time series, schools that had leavers during 2019-2023 are using the School Equity Index Bands and Groups defined using 2023 School Equity Index Numbers.

Education area

These are twelve administrative regions created by the Ministry of Education and aligned with the Ministry's ten local offices.  School leavers are included in the education region of the last school they were enrolled with. In 2023 the Auckland region was split into 3 regions: Tāmaki Herenga Tāngata (north and west Auckland), Tāmaki Herenga Manawa (central and east Auckland) and Tāmaki Herenga Waka (south and southwest Auckland).

Not Applicable includes students attending Te Kura (Correspondence School), homeschooling, students whose school campus covers more than one region and students with no regional information available.

Regional council

The regional council area the school of the student is located in. Regional council boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand.

Not Applicable includes students attending Te Kura (Correspondence School), homeschooling, students whose school campus covers more than one region and students with no regional information available.

Territorial authority

The territorial authority area the school of the student is located in. Territorial authority boundaries are defined by Statistics New Zealand. Please note that Auckland Territorial Authority is further broken down into local board.

Not Applicable includes students attending Te Kura (Correspondence School), homeschooling, students whose school campus covers more than one region and students with no regional information available.