Teacher numbers

Demographic information on teachers in state and state integrated schools.

Last Updated: June 2024

Introduction

This page contains information on the number of teachers in state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand. It allows us to examine the number of teachers over time, and to break these down into a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regions.

There are two different ways we measure the size of the teaching workforce on this page:

  • Teacher headcount: which looks at the total number of teachers employed throughout the year.
  • Full-time teacher equivalent (FTTE): which measures the hours worked by a teacher across a year in relation to those worked by a full time teacher who works the whole year.

More information about this collection can be found on the Schooling Workforce Data Collection page.

Page Contents:

Overview of teachers in 2023

2023 Teaching Workforce

Interactive Dashboard

The dashboard can show headcount or full time teacher equivalent (FTTE) data. This is changed by the “Display” buttons to the right of the dashboard. By default this is set to headcount.

The buttons at the top of the dashboard control what is on the bottom axis of the graph. To filter the data use any of the Region, School or Teacher filters on the left. To switch between the filters use the buttons titled "Region", "School" and "Teacher". By default the dashboard only shows data from the most recent year. To select other years use the dropdown in the top left (under “Filters”).

The “Colour By” buttons to the right of the dashboard allow a second group to be displayed on the graph.

Data can be shown with or without day relief By default day relief is set to “No”; meaning they are not counted in the graph. In general day relief are excluded from routine analysis because they are a casual workforce and numbers can vary depending on cover required because of sickness or other activities. Selecting “Yes” shows only day relief data. Select “Yes” and “No” to show regular teacher data and day relief.

You can expand the dashboard by pressing the ⤢ icon in the bottom right corner of the dashboard.

Read the instructions (pdf 164kB) for more guidance on using the Teaching Staff dashboard.

Teacher Headcount: Time Series Data

These spreadsheets provide teacher headcount data, broken down into a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regional type variables.

There are three different tables included here. These enable us to either look at the total teacher workforce, or to focus on either the regular (permanent/fixed term) or day relief workforces in isolation.

  • The first table provides time series including all teachers – regular and day relief teachers
  • The second table provides time series including only regular teachers
  • The third table provides time series including only day relief teachers

Full-Time Teacher Equivalent: Time Series Data

These spreadsheets provide FTTE data, broken down into a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regional type variables.

There are three different tables included here. These enable us to either look at the total teacher workforce, or to focus on either the regular (permanent/fixed term) or day relief workforces in isolation.

  • The first table provides time series including all teachers – regular and day relief teachers
  • The second table provides time series including only regular teachers
  • The third table provides time series including only day relief teachers

Teacher Numbers: Interactive Pivot Tables

This workbook allows you to create your tables by any combination of variables. This includes the option of displaying teacher numbers by a range of teacher demographics, school characteristics (such as decile), and regional type variables.

Please note: use of this spreadsheet requires MS Excel version 2007 or later.

Teacher Numbers by School

This spreadsheet provides a time series of Teacher Head Count and FTTE in a single table for each state and state integrated school.

What are Headcount and FTTE?

Throughout the statistics provided on this page, two different ways of measuring the number of teachers are presented: Headcount and full time teacher equivalent. Here a more detailed explanation of what these mean is provided.

Teacher Headcount

Headcount is a measure of the total number of teachers employed throughout the year. Here all teachers are counted equally, whether they are full or part time.

Teaching staff reported here include all teachers who work at least one day across the year.

Some teachers will work in more than one role across the year, these teachers are reported only once against the role in which they worked the most hours during the year.

Full Time Teacher Equivalent (FTTE)

FTTE measures the hours worked by a teacher across a year in relation to those worked by a full time teacher who works the whole year. An FTTE of 1.0 is equivalent to a full-time teacher working across the entire year, while an FTTE of 0.5 signals a teacher worked half of these hours across the year. This means that they may have worked half of full time hours for the whole year, or that they worked full time hours for half the year, or something in between. In calculating FTTE it is the total hours worked across the year which matter. In calculating the total FTTE of all teachers across the country, individual teacher FTTEs are added together to give the total FTTE.

Teaching staff reported here include all teachers who work at least one day across the calendar year.

Some teachers will work in more than one role across the year, these teachers are reported only once against the role in which they worked the most hours during the year. This means that even if a teachers FTTE is spread across multiple roles, the entire FTTE will be counted against their main role in the data reported on this page.

FTTE is calculated differently for regular (permanent and fixed-term) and day relief teachers:

  • For all regular teachers FTTE is calculated as the number of hours worked during the year divided by the total number of hours a full time teacher (i.e. 1 FTTE) would work.
  • For Day Relief teachers FTTE is calculated as the number of days they worked during the year divided by 190. This calculation acknowledges that a day relief teacher is normally only employed during school terms.

Teaching Staff Data Dimension Notes

Year:

The calendar year a teacher taught in. For headcount data this goes back to 2004, however for FTTE data this only goes back to 2014. This is due to changes in definitions occurring in 2014 which make the time series prior to 2014 not comparable to those from 2014 onwards

Sector:

Teachers are grouped into the primary or secondary sector depending on the type of the school they work in.  The primary sector includes all primary schools, intermediates and special schools. The secondary sector includes all secondary schools and composite schools (including Te Kura, the correspondence school)

Designation:

The type of teaching role a teacher works as their main role during the year.

Employment Type:

Whether a teacher is employed on a fixed term, permanent or day relief basis in their main role during the year

Full Time/Part Time:

Whether a teacher is employed as full time, part time (or day relief) - in their main role during the year.

Ethnic Group:

The Ministry uses Statistics New Zealand's definition of ethnicity: ethnicity is the ethnic group or groups that people identify with or feel they belong to. Ethnicity is a measure of cultural affiliation, as opposed to race, ancestry, nationality or citizenship.

Total response ethnicity is used here. This means that teachers can identify with up to 3 different ethnic groups, and have been counted in each ethnic group they belong to and once in "Total" Ethnic Group.

Age Group:

The age of the teacher, in ten year age-groups. Age is calculated as at 1 July for each year.

Teacher Gender:

The gender of the teacher.

School Type:

The school type of the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year.

School Gender:

The gender of the students that a school caters for, for example, co-educational, or single sex.

Urban/Rural:

A grouping based on the size and nature of the area of the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year. These groupings are based on Statistics New Zealand definitions:

Main Urban:

Main urban areas are very large urban areas centred on a city or major urban centre. Main urban areas have a minimum population of 30,000.

  • Secondary Urban: Secondary urban areas have a population between 10,000 and 29,999 and are centred on the larger regional centres.
  • Minor Urban: Minor urban areas are urbanised settlements (outside main and secondary urban areas), centred around smaller towns with a population between 1,000 and 9,999.
  • Rural: Those living in rural settlements or townships, also includes areas with a population between 300 and 999.
Equity Index Band:

The Equity Index Band of a school is an indicator of the relative degree of socioeconomic barriers to educational achievement faced by students at the school, and is intended as a tool for analysing and reporting on socioeconomic trends in education data. Equity Index Bands are derived from the Equity Index used for school funding. There are seven Equity Index Bands each containing a similar number of schools. In order of increasing socioeconomic barriers the bands are named: “Fewest”, “Few”, “Below Average”, “Average”, “Above Average”, “Many”, and “Most”.

While the equity index has been in use only since 2023, here Equity Index Bands are used from 2019 onwards. This is done using 2023 Equity index numbers in order to provide a time series for socioeconomic analysis, as 2023 EQI numbers provide a reasonable estimation of the socioeconomic circumstances of a school's learners back to 2019.

Some schools are not assigned an Equity index band and are included under "Not Applicable". This includes:

  • All private schools (these schools do not have an Equity Index number)
  • Te Aho o Te Kura Pounamu (the unique nature of this school means that it is inappropriate for inclusion within an Equity Index Band or Group)
  • Schools which are assigned a notional Equity Index number. These include Teen Parent Units, Activity Centres, Regional Health Schools, some specialist schools, and a small number of very small schools. These schools are assigned the maximum Equity Index number to reflect either the particular challenges unique to those settings, and/or limitations on data availability.

More information on the Equity Index Bands and Groups can be found here.

Equity Index Group:

There are three groups of schools formed by collapsing the seven Equity Index Bands as follows. The “Fewest” and “Few” Equity Index Bands are combined to form the “Fewer” Equity Index Group. The “Many” and “Most” Equity Index Bands are combined to form the “More” Equity Index Group. The remaining Equity Index Bands are combined to form the “Moderate” Equity Index Group.

More information on the Equity Index Bands and Groups can be found here.

Decile:

Up until 2022, decile was used by the Ministry as a mechanism for determining the level of equity funding that schools receive schools, and we have also used this as a way to understand socioeconomic trends in education data. From 2023 onward this has been replaced by the Schooling Equity Index.

Schools were assigned a socioeconomic score based on five census derived socioeconomic factors. Decile 1 schools are the 10% of schools with the greatest proportion of students from the most socioeconomically deprived areas.  Decile 10 schools are the 10% of schools with the greatest proportion of students from the least socioeconomically deprived areas.

Group Decile:

School decile grouped into Low (Decile 1-3), Medium (Decile 4-7), and High (Decile 8-10). Available up until 2022.

Territorial Authority:

The Territorial Authority linked to the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year

Regional Council:

The Regional Council linked to the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year.

Education Region:

The Education Region linked to the school where the teacher works their main teaching role for the year.