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School Qualifications: NCEA level 3

A formal school qualification is a measure of the extent to which young adults have completed a basic prerequisite for higher education and training, and many entry-level jobs.

School leavers are identified from the Ministry of Education's ENROL system, while highest school qualification is obtained from schools and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority. Data presented here is for school leavers with NCEA Level 1 and above, level 2 and above and level 3 and above (including a UE Award).

Identical information is available for other territorial authorities in this region by using the drop down menu above. For territorial authorities in other regions first choose the appropriate region from the drop down menu above. Alternatively a large amount of school leaver data is available from our statistical pages. See School Leavers.

School leavers with at least NCEA level 3 or equivalent by gender and ethnic group (2023-2025)
Group Below NCEA level 3 NCEA level 3 or above Percentage with NCEA level 3 or above
2023 2024 2025 2023 2024 2025 2023 2024 2025
Female 99 106 114 65 66 66 39.6 38.4 36.7
Male 129 151 118 36 53 66 21.8 26.0 35.9
Māori 120 127 111 27 35 41 18.4 21.6 27.0
Pacific 29 41 41 12 13 20 29.3 24.1 32.8
Asian x 7 9 x 15 15 x 68.2 62.5
MELAA x x x x x x x x x
Other 0 x x 0 x x na x x
European/Pākehā 148 170 146 77 82 88 34.2 32.5 37.6
Territorial Total 228 257 232 101 119 132 30.7 31.6 36.3
New Zealand Total 29,965 28,954 29,010 33,966 37,316 41,776 53.1 56.3 59.0

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.

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