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Student Population: Trends

The Ministry uses school roll data in a number of ways: to fund and staff schools; to support policy analysis, development, and decision making; to monitor the outcomes of the New Zealand education system; and for national and international reporting purposes.

The roll data presented here is based on the 1 July roll returns.  The data includes gender, ethnic group, funding year level, and age.  A small amount of trend information is also available.

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.

Alternatively a large amount of roll data is available from our statistical pages.  See July School Roll Returns.

Rolls by ethnic group and gender, as at 1 July (2016-2020)
Group Gender 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020
Māori Female 6,342 6,635 6,860 7,031 7,221
Māori Male 6,644 6,894 7,154 7,327 7,508
Māori Total 12,986 13,529 14,014 14,358 14,729
Pacific Female 1,787 1,901 1,985 2,036 2,126
Pacific Male 2,019 2,146 2,198 2,221 2,302
Pacific Total 3,806 4,047 4,183 4,257 4,428
Asian Female 3,924 4,438 4,985 5,408 5,826
Asian Male 4,002 4,521 5,075 5,554 5,916
Asian Total 7,926 8,959 10,060 10,962 11,742
Other Female 1,033 1,108 1,199 1,333 1,524
Other Male 1,097 1,210 1,309 1,427 1,585
Other Total 2,130 2,318 2,508 2,760 3,109
European/Pākehā Female 32,365 32,181 31,944 31,641 31,229
European/Pākehā Male 33,024 32,836 32,531 32,303 32,104
European/Pākehā Total 65,389 65,017 64,475 63,944 63,333
International Female 518 553 634 639 551
International Male 487 573 615 659 559
International Total 1,005 1,126 1,249 1,298 1,110
Total Female 45,969 46,816 47,607 48,088 48,477
Total Male 47,273 48,180 48,882 49,491 49,974
Total Total 93,242 94,996 96,489 97,579 98,451

Note:

  1. Ethnicity is prioritised. MELAA (Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African) students are included with ‘Other’.

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