Wellington Region

Retention

Completion of upper secondary education is associated with a range of economic and social benefits both in New Zealand and across the OECD. Retention to senior secondary schooling is linked to higher levels of skills and knowledge required for participation in our increasingly knowledge-based society and the wider global community.

The retention data presented here is calculated from school leaver data, that is, it is the age that a school leaver completed their schooling. The Ministry convention is to consider the proportion of students that remain at school until at least their 17th birthday; this is a year after compulsory education and the average age for a student completing their upper secondary qualifications.

Identical information is available for the region’s territorial authorities using the drop down menu above. For other territorial authorities first choose the appropriate region from the drop down menu above.

Percentage of school leavers staying at school until at least their 17th birthday (2018-2020)
Group Left before 17th birthday Stayed until 17th birthday Percentage staying until at least 17th birthday
2018 2019 2020 2018 2019 2020 2018 2019 2020
Female 290 315 289 2,600 2,523 2,580 90.0 88.9 89.9
Male 429 453 382 2,733 2,606 2,721 86.4 85.2 87.7
Māori 277 275 254 991 944 981 78.2 77.4 79.4
Pacific 113 103 94 735 694 729 86.7 87.1 88.6
Asian 31 43 33 655 663 703 95.5 93.9 95.5
MELAA 9 22 20 138 135 157 93.9 86.0 88.7
Other 3 6 5 30 15 39 90.9 71.4 88.6
European/Pākehā 458 531 439 3,710 3,554 3,760 89.0 87.0 89.5
Region Total 719 768 671 5,333 5,129 5,301 88.1 87.0 88.8
New Zealand Total 9,869 10,336 9,945 51,168 49,667 50,384 83.8 82.8 83.5

Notes:

  1. ‘x’ = data has been suppressed where there are between 0 and 5 students in the denominator for a specific group, for example Asian students. Where one gender has been suppressed the corresponding gender has also been suppressed. 'na' = not applicable.
  2. Ethnicity is multiple response, that is, students who affiliated in more than one ethnic group have been counted in each ethnic group. Students are only counted once in the total, therefore, the ethnic groups may not sum to the total.
  3. International fee-paying students and adult students (age 19+) are excluded.