Student Numbers as at 1 July 2006

The following roll statistics include regular students, adult students, alternative education students, NZAID (formerly MFAT) students and foreign fee-paying students.

The overall roll has been declining since 2004. At 1 July 2006 the total number of students attending New Zealand schools was 760,761. This was a decrease of 0.3 per cent (2,029 students) since July 2005. See Figure 1 for the trend in total numbers of students since 1991. The overall roll decline is explained by a decrease in Years 1-8, where student numbers dropped by 0.5 per cent. In Years 9-15, there was a 0.1 per cent increase in student numbers.

Figure 1 - Total Number of Students at 1 July 1991 - 2006

The number of foreign fee-paying students (9,645) decreased by 14.6 per cent (1,654 students).

The number of adult students (3,673) in New Zealand schools has decreased in recent years. There has been a 25.8 per cent decrease since July 2005. There was also a 25.0 per cent decrease in the previous year.

Rolls by region

In 2006, the total number of students in most regions decreased. However, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch experienced small increases in their rolls. The Auckland region had 33 per cent of the school population in July 2006. There was a 0.4 per cent growth in rolls in this region compared with 0.5 per cent in July 2005 and 0.6 per cent in July 2004.

Changes in regional rolls are summarised below in Table 1:

 

Table 1: Total Number of Students by Region at 1 July 2004 to 2006

Region	2004	2005	2006	Difference 2004-05		Difference 2005-06
				Number	%	Number	%
Northland	30,102	29,791	29,730	-311	-1.0%	-61	-0.2%
Auckland	249,998	251,309	252,427	1,311	0.5%	1,118	0.4%
Waikato	74,398	74,405	74,000	7	0.0%	-405	-0.5%
Bay of Plenty	51,504	51,252	50,736	-252	-0.5%	-516	-1.0%
Gisborne	9,947	9,870	9,723	-77	-0.8%	-147	-1.5%
Hawkes Bay	30,601	30,726	30,326	125	0.4%	-400	-1.3%
Taranaki	20,614	20,300	20,007	-314	-1.5%	-293	-1.4%
Manawatu-Wanganui	43,072	42,495	42,163	-577	-1.3%	-332	-0.8%
Wellington	79,694	79,391	79,684	-303	-0.4%	293	0.4%
West Coast	5,425	5,250	5,166	-175	-3.2%	-84	-1.6%
Canterbury	89,289	89,618	89,767	329	0.4%	149	0.2%
Otago	31,060	30,877	30,528	-183	-0.6%	-349	-1.1%
Southland	17,394	17,017	16,857	-377	-2.2%	-160	-0.9%
Tasman	7,435	7,468	7,430	33	0.4%	-38	-0.5%
Nelson	8,840	8,690	8,610	-150	-1.7%	-80	-0.9%
Marlborough	6,725	6,684	6,706	-41	-0.6%	22	0.3%
Chatham Is. County	84	74	79	-10	-11.9%	5	6.8%
Correspondence School	7,996	6,632	5,873	-1,364	-17.1%	-759	-11.4%
Not Applicable*	476	941	949	465	97.7%	8	0.9%
Total	764,654	762,790	760,761	-1,864	-0.2%	-2,029	-0.3%

*Not Applicable refers to Westmount School that has multiple campus locations

 

Rolls by type of school

Primary school rolls, including Intermediates (441,770 students at July 2006), experienced a decrease of 0.6 per cent (2,676 students).

Composite school rolls excluding the Correspondence school (41,027 students) decreased by 0.5 per cent (189 students).

Secondary school rolls (269,296 students) increased by 0.6 per cent (1,584 students).

The Correspondence School roll (5,873 students) decreased by 11.4 per cent (759 students).

Special school rolls (2,795 students) increased by 0.4 per cent (11 students).

Rolls by MOE year level

In July 2006 there were 482,769 students in Years 1-8. Since 2005, this decreased by 2,355 or 0.5 per cent. The number of students in Year 1 (58,040) has decreased by 2.1 per cent, (1,265) since July 2005, compared with an increase of 3.3 per cent in the previous year.

The number of foreign fee-paying students in Years 1-8 (2,455) decreased by 409 students (14.3 per cent) contributing to the decrease in the Y1-Y8 roll.

The Year 9 – 15 rolls increased by 326 students (0.1 per cent) to 277,992 in July 2006. This small increase is accounted for by regular students as the number of foreign fee-paying students in Years 9-15 (7,190) decreased by 1,245 (14.8 per cent).

In 2006, there were 387,916 male (51 per cent) and 372,845 female (49 per cent) students. At the primary levels (Years 1-8), the male proportion was slightly higher than the female proportion (being 51.5 per cent and 48.5 per cent respectively). At secondary levels (Years 9-15), there is a narrower gap, with the male proportion being 50.1 per cent and the female proportion being 49.9 per cent. Male enrolments are slightly higher than females at the lower secondary levels (Years 9-11), but from Years 12-15, female enrolments are higher than males. For Year 13 and 15 enrolments, female enrolments are six percentage points higher than males.

 

Table 2: Percentage of Enrolments by Gender Breakdown for each MOE Year Level

MoE Year Level	% Male	% Female	Total
Year 1	51.2%	48.8%	100.0%
Year 2	51.3%	48.7%	100.0%
Year 3	51.6%	48.4%	100.0%
Year 4	51.4%	48.6%	100.0%
Year 5	51.2%	48.8%	100.0%
Year 6	51.8%	48.2%	100.0%
Year 7	51.8%	48.2%	100.0%
Year 8	51.9%	48.1%	100.0%
Year 1-8 subtotal	51.5%	48.5%	100.0%
Year 9	51.6%	48.4%	100.0%
Year 10	51.5%	48.5%	100.0%
Year 11	50.5%	49.5%	100.0%
Year 12	48.2%	51.8%	100.0%
Year 13	47.0%	53.0%	100.0%
Year 14	48.1%	51.9%	100.0%
Year 15	47.0%	53.0%	100.0%
Year 9 - 15 subtotal	50.1%	49.9%	100.0%
Total	51.0%	49.0%	100.0%

 

Domestic student rolls by ethnicity

There were 751,044 domestic students as at 1 July 2006 which was a decrease of 377 since 1 July 2005. The domestic student count excludes foreign fee-paying and NZAID students.

There are relatively more students of Pasifika and Asian ethnicity than last year and there has been little change in the proportion of Māori students. The ethnic breakdown of the total number of domestic students in July 2006 was as follows:

• NZ European/Pākehā and Other European students (443,361) make up 59.0 per cent of total domestic students (down from 59.6 per cent);
• Māori students (162,685) make up 21.6 per cent (No change since 2005);
• Pasifika students (68,059) make up 9.1 per cent (up slightly from 8.8 per cent);
• Asian students (61,857) make up 8.2 per cent (up slightly from 8.0 per cent); and
• Students from other ethnic groups (15,382) make up 2.0 per cent (up slightly from 1.9 per cent).

The number of domestic Asian students in New Zealand schools at July 2006 has increased by 1,499 since July 2005. This was a 2.5 per cent increase since 2005, which compares to a 2.8 per cent increase between 2004 and 2005, and a 4.8 per cent increase between 2003 and 2004.

Private school rolls

The proportion of the New Zealand school population attending private schools at 1 July 2006 was 3.9 per cent (29,895 students). This is a slightly higher proportion than last year, being 3.8 per cent (29,358 students). Growth in private school rolls remains low. In July 2006, there was a 1.8 per cent increase, and in July 2005 and 2004 there was a 0.7 per cent and 1.0 per cent increase respectively.

Foreign fee-paying students account for 4.3 per cent of the rolls in private schools in 2006, compared with 4.8 per cent in 2005 and 7.3 per cent in 2004.

Early childhood education attendance by Year 1 students

There were 58,040 Year 1 students in July 2006. For those where attendance history could be established, 94.5 per cent of Year 1 children in 2006 had regularly attended early childhood education. This is a slight increase from the 94.3 per cent in 2005.

A total of 3,076 Year 1 students attended Kohanga Reo. Of these, 2,899 students were Māori. This represents 20.7 per cent of all Māori Year 1 students.

Schools were unable to establish whether 2,553 of these children had regularly attended some form of early childhood education immediately prior to starting school.

 

Related Pages on Education Counts

Other reports can be found on the Student Numbers index page.

The July School Roll Return data collection page provides links to data, publications and indicators based on that collection.