Student Numbers as at 1 July 2007

School rolls

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

The overall roll has been declining since 2004. At 1 July 2007 , the total number of students attending New Zealand schools was 759,906. This was a decrease of 855 students (0.1 %) since July 2006. The previous year had seen a decrease of 2,029 students (0.3 %).

Rolls by Gender

In 2007, there were 387,477 male (51 %) and 372,429 female (49 %) students. These proportions are unchanged from the previous year.

At the primary levels (Years 1-8), the male proportion (51.4 %) was slightly higher than the female proportion (48.6 %).

At secondary levels (Years 9-15), there is a narrower gap, with the male proportion being 50.3 % and the female proportion being 49.7 %.

Male enrolments are slightly higher than females at the lower secondary level (Years 9-11) but from years 12-15, female enrolments are higher than males.

Table 1: Number and percentage of students by gender breakdown for each Year Level

Rolls by region

In Auckland, where 33.3 % of the national school population attend schools, there was a 0.4 % increase in rolls, the same as at July 2006 and slightly less than the 0.5 % growth at July 2005. Auckland is the only region to have had growth in rolls for every year in the last ten years.

Tasman, Canterbury and Bay of Plenty were the only other regions with roll growth between 2006 and 2007, with 2.1 %, 0.6 % and 0.2 % respectively.

There were 13 regions whose rolls decreased between July 2006 and July 2007. The Chatham Islands and Nelson region had the largest decreases at -12.7 % and -2.5 % respectively.

Taranaki, Manawatu-Wanganui and Southland had decreases in their rolls every year for the last ten years.

Table 2: Total Number of Students by Region at 1 July 2005 -2007

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

Rolls by type of school

In July 2007, there were 439,287 students at primary schools, including intermediates. This is a decrease of 2,483 students (0.6 %) since July 2006.

There were 42,189 students at composite schools, excluding the Correspondence school. This is an increase of 1,162 students (2.8 %) since July 2006.

There were 270,085 students at secondary schools. This is an increase of 789 students (0.3 %) since July 2006.

There were 5,546 students at Correspondence school. This is a decrease of 327 students (5.6 %) since July 2006.

There were 2,799 students at special schools. This is an increase of 4 students (0.1 %) since July 2006.

Domestic rolls by ethnicity

The domestic student count excludes foreign fee-paying and NZAID students.

There were 749,628 domestic students as at 1 July 2007 which was a decrease of 1,416 students (0.2 %) since July 2006.

There were 62,867 domestic Asian students. This is an increase of 1,010 students (1.6 %) since July 2006. This compares with an increase of 1,499 students (2.5 %) in the previous year. Asian students make up 8.4 % of the domestic roll. This is up slightly from 8.2 % in July 2006.

There were 69,888 Pasifika students. This is an increase of 1,829 students (2.7 %) since July 2006. This compares with an increase of 1,971 students (3.0 %) in the previous year. Pasifika students make up 9.3 % of the domestic roll. This is up slightly from 9.1 % in July 2006.

There were 164,021 Māori students. This is an increase of 1,636 students (1.0 %) since July 2006. This compares with a decrease of 149 students (0.1 %) in the previous year. Māori students make up 21.9 % of the domestic roll. This is up slightly from 21.6 % in July 2006.

There were 436,717 NZ European/Pākehā and Other European students. This is a decrease of 6,644 students (1.5 %) since July 2006. This compares with a decrease of 4,857 students (1.1 %) in the previous year. NZ European/Pākehā and Other European students make 58.3 % of the domestic roll. This is down slightly from 59.0 % in July 2006.

Early childhood education attendance by Year 1 students

There were 56,406 Year 1 students in July 2007. For those where attendance history could be established, 94.7 % had regularly attended early childhood education. This is a slight increase from the 94.5 % in 2006.

A total of 2,804 students attended Kōhanga Reo. Of these, 2,641 were Māori. This represents 19.6 % of all Māori Year 1 students.

Schools were unable to report on whether 3,085 Year 1 students had regularly attended some form of early childhood education immediately prior to starting school.

Private school rolls

In July 2007, there were 30,738 students attending private schools. This is an increase of 843 students (2.8 %) since July 2006. This compares with an increase of 537 students (1.8 %) in the previous year.

The proportion of the school population attending private schools at 1 July 2007 was 4.0 %. This is slightly higher than last years proportion of 3.9 %.

There were 1,337 foreign fee-paying students attending private schools. This is an increase of 52 students (4.0 %) since July 2006. This compares with a decrease of 125 students (8.9 %) in the previous year.

The proportion of the private school population that are foreign fee-paying students was 4.4 % at 1 July 2007 . This is slightly higher than last years proportion of 4.3 %.

Related Pages on Education Counts

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