Schools' census results: January 2026

This statistical release presents data collected from the annual census of maintained schools in Wales. Data for independent schools is also shown. It reports information on:

• schools
• pupils
• ethnicity
• free school meal eligibility
• additional learning needs (ALN) and special educational needs (SEN)
• class sizes
• teachers and support staff

The data in this report is collected by the Welsh Government from local authority maintained schools. It's collected in an electronic return called the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) and from independent schools in an aggregated return.

• There were 1,441 local authority maintained schools, down 8 compared with January 2025.
• There were 453,699 pupils in local authority maintained schools, down 6,392 compared with January 2025 and continuing the fall in recent years.
• Of the 372,070 pupils aged 5 to 15, 20.5% were known to be eligible for free school meals, up from 20.3% at January 2025.
• 26.8% of pupils aged 5 to 15 were known to be eligible for free school meals or transitionally protected, down from 28.3% at January 2025.
• There were 39,850 pupils with ALN or SEN in maintained schools (8.8% of all pupils), down from 43,885 (9.5%) at January 2025.
• There were 23,407 full-time equivalent qualified teachers in maintained schools, down 323 compared with January 2025.

This section presents information on schools and pupils.

For definitions of types of school (including how they are classified in terms of language of teaching (medium)) see definitions.

The table shows that there were 1,441 local authority maintained schools at January 2026, down 8 compared with January 2025. There were 78 independent schools, down 7 compared with January 2025.

The guidance for categorising schools according to Welsh medium provision has been updated. The aim of the new arrangements for categorising schools according to Welsh medium provision is to help local authorities and schools to plan their Welsh medium education provision in such a way that supports the Curriculum for Wales as well as the national goal of one million Welsh speakers, as set out in Cymraeg 2050. This is the second year that data using the new categorisation system has been published. The data is not comparable with the previous categorisation system. See definitions for more details.

Figure 1: number of maintained schools by local authority and school language, 2026 [Note 1]

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Description of figure 1: stacked bar chart showing that Cardiff had the highest number of schools overall at January 2026. Gwynedd had the highest number of Welsh medium schools.

Number of maintained schools by local authority and medium (MS Excel)

[Note 1] Primary, middle and secondary schools (excluding nursery and special schools). Welsh medium includes dual language schools transitioning to Welsh medium. Dual language includes schools recording more than one school language category (except C3 – Welsh medium and CP – Designated Welsh medium secondary) and English medium schools transitioning to dual language.

At January 2026, there were:

• 403 Welsh medium schools
• 73 dual language schools
• 921 English medium schools
• 91,776 pupils (21%) being educated in Welsh medium schools
• 25,483 pupils (6%) in dual language schools
• 329,266 pupils (74%) in English medium schools

Most schools were either Welsh medium or dual language schools in:

• Isle of Anglesey
• Gwynedd
• Conwy
• Ceredigion
• Carmarthenshire

In the other 17 local authorities most schools were English medium.

The table shows that there were 453,699 pupils in local authority maintained schools, down 6,392 compared with January 2025. There were 9,154 pupils (2% of all pupils) in independent schools at January 2026, down 579 compared with January 2025.

The number of pupils decreased in all sectors except special schools.

[Note 1] 3 independent schools did not submit data in 2025. All schools submitted data in 2026.

Pupil projections

Pupil projections mirror the trends shown in population projections published by the Office for National statistics.

Based on the latest 2024-based population projections for Wales the number of pupils in maintained schools is projected to fall by around 100,000 or 23% over the next 15 years. See table 20 of the accompanying spreadsheet (MS Excel).

All the data that follows in this release relates to local authority maintained schools only.

Figure 2: pupil teacher ratio (PTR) by sector, 2008 to 2026

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Description of figure 2: line chart showing that over the last 19 years PTRs have generally remained consistent; with primary schools having the highest PTRs and nursery schools seeing falls in the last decade.

PTR by sector (MS Excel)

Note 1] Middle schools are a category of school that was introduced in 2013. They can contain pupils aged 3/4 to 16/18.

The PTR in January 2026 was highest in primary schools at 21.3 and lowest in special schools at 7.0. The ratio in secondary schools was 17.5.

The PTR decreased in nursery, primary and middle schools in 2026.

The PTR increased in special schools and is unchanged in secondary schools in 2026.

The Welsh Government provided funding to schools under the Recruit, Recover and Raise Standards (RRRS) plan to recruit extra staff to support pupils during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. The funding was provided during the pandemic and the recovery period up to April 2023 to March 2024, though the amount distributed decreased since the initial funding in April 2020 to March 2021. This is likely to have contributed to the falls in the PTR during this period.

This is the ethnic group with which the pupil identifies themself.

The table shows that 83.6% of pupils aged 5 and over identified as White British at January 2026. This figure has been falling slightly for each of the past 5 years with pupils of most other ethnic backgrounds showing increases over the same period.

Of those pupils from a minority ethnic background, the largest groups are those from a mixed ethnic background (16,933 pupils), Asian (13,727), a White background other than White British, Traveller or Gypsy/Roma (13,665), and Black (8,217); whilst 7,076 pupils identify as another ethnic group.

Pupils are eligible for FSM if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits or support payments.

Universal primary free school meals (UPFSM)

The Welsh Government committed to providing all primary school children in Wales with FSM by 2024. The rollout began in September 2022 and was completed in September 2024.

The data presented in this release does not reflect the total number of pupils receiving FSM in January 2026. Instead, it includes only the number of pupils who are eligible for FSM if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain benefits (as reported in previous years) or those who are transitionally protected. Please see the free school meal information guide for full details of eligibility criteria and benefits.

Figure 3: percentage of pupils known to be eligible for FSM, 2008 to 2026 [Note 1]

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Description of figure 3: line chart showing that the percentage of pupils known to be eligible for FSM has decreased in the last 5 years. The percentage is still higher in 2026 than in the years before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Percentage of pupils known to be eligible for FSM (MS Excel)

[Note 1] Pupils eligible if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits or support payments. The COVID-19 pandemic may have impacted on the quality of this data and may have resulted in over recording of this data in 2020 to 2022. Please see our 'Chief Statistician’s update: updated data on pupils eligible for free school meals published following additional validation exercise'. Since 2023 we have allowed additional time and implemented new validation rules and procedures to ensure data of the highest possible quality.

[Note 2] Age as at 31 August of the previous year.

Between January 2025 and January 2026:

• the number of pupils aged 5 to 15 known to be eligible for FSM decreased from 76,636 to 76,125
• the percentage of pupils aged 5 to 15 eligible for FSM increased from 20.3% to 20.5%
• the number of pupils of all ages known to be eligible for FSM decreased from 84,764 to 83,699
• the percentage of pupils of all ages eligible for FSM was unchanged, at 18.4%

On 1 April 2019 the Welsh Government introduced a new TP for FSM policy. This was brought in to ensure that pupils have their FSM protected during the Universal Credit rollout period.

This protection applies to individual pupils and will continue until the end of their current schools phase, being the end of primary school or end of secondary school.

Any pupil that was eligible for FSM on the introduction of the policy on 1 April 2019 should be TP. In addition, any pupil that has become eligible at any point during the Universal Credit rollout up to 31 December 2023 under the new eligibility criteria should also be TP.

The tables show that there were 99,766 pupils (26.8%) aged 5 to 15 known to be eligible for FSM or TP at January 2026, down from 106,943 pupils (28.3%) at January 2025.

There were 108,495 pupils (23.9%) of all ages known to be eligible for FSM or TP at January 2026, down from 116,172 pupils (25.2%) at January 2025.

These falls are partly because no new pupils can become TP after 31 December 2023 and some pupils have lost TP due to changing school phase.

The ALN and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018 (the ALNET Act), the ALN Code for Wales 2021, and related regulations set out the legal framework for supporting children and young people aged 0 to 25 with ALN in Wales. Together, these form the ALN system, which has been fully implemented since September 2025 following a four-year rollout. This has replaced the special educational needs (SEN) system.

A child or young person is considered to have ALN if they have a learning difficulty or disability and need support that is additional to, or different from, the support generally available to others of the same age in early years settings, schools, or further education.

For children and young people with ALN, their needs and the support they require are recorded in a statutory Individual Development Plan (IDP). The IDP is maintained either by their education setting or by the local authority.

Changes to additional learning needs data for 2026

To ensure ALN provision status was recorded accurately and lawfully in PLASC 2026, children and young people who automatically transferred to the ALN system on 31 August 2025 but had not yet completed the ALN decision-making process and had not been issued with an IDP were recorded as ‘transferred to the ALN system and awaiting an ALN decision’.

Figure 4: number and percentage of pupils with ALN or SEN in maintained schools by type of provision, 2025 to 2026 [Note 1]

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Description of figure 4: clustered bar chart showing that the most common type of ALN provision in 2026 was school IDP. IDP provision has increased compared to 2025, as the move to the new ALN system was completed.

Number and percentage of pupils with ALN or SEN in maintained schools by type of provision (MS Excel)

[Note 1] Percentages represent the percentage of all pupils with these types of ALN or SEN provision.

[Note 2] IDPs are statutory plans created under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, which came into force on 1 September 2021. A learner may have either a school maintained IDP or a local authority maintained IDP.

[Note 3] Pupils who have transferred to the ALN system and are awaiting an ALN decision.

There were 39,850 pupils with ALN or SEN in maintained schools (8.8% of all pupils), down from 43,885 (9.5%) at January 2025.

Figure 5: reports of ALN in maintained schools by type of need, 2026 [Note 1]

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Description of figure 5: bar chart showing the number of reports of each ALN. Speech, language and communication difficulties was the most common type of ALN in 2026 followed by behavioural, emotional and social difficulties.

Reports of ALN in maintained schools by type of need (MS Excel)

[Note 1]: Numbers rounded to the nearest 5. From January 2017 maintained schools were allowed to report as many SEN for a pupil as required. These reports are not ranked and therefore have no type that can be shown as a pupil’s ‘Major Need’. The chart above shows the number of times each type of need was reported. For example, if types 'Dyslexia' and 'Dyspraxia' are reported for a pupil that pupil is counted twice, once under each type. The number of ALN reports will therefore be greater than the number of pupils with ALN.

There were 62,681 reports of ALN type made, an average of 1.6 per pupil with ALN.

The most common type of need reported was ‘Speech, language and communication difficulties’, representing 36.9% of pupils with some form of ALN.

The next highest was ‘Behavioural, emotional and social difficulties’ (35.4%) followed by ‘Autistic spectrum disorders’ (29.5%).

The table shows that average infant and junior class sizes have both decreased compared with 2025.

Infant classes of more than 30 pupils are unlawfully large unless specific circumstances called ‘exceptions’ are satisfied.

Figure 6: percentage of pupils in lawfully and unlawfully large infant classes, 2024 to 2026

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Description of figure 6: clustered bar chart showing that the percentage of pupils in lawfully and unlawfully large classes in 2026 has shown little change compared with 2024.

Percentage of pupils in lawfully and unlawfully large infant classes (MS Excel)

There were 5,948 pupils (6.6%) in all infant classes of over 30 pupils in January 2026, up from 5,755 pupils (6.0%) in January 2025.

There were 651 pupils (0.7%) in unlawfully large classes of over 30 pupils in January 2026, down from 1,033 pupils (1.1%) in January 2025.

The School Workforce Annual Census (SWAC) was introduced in 2019 to provide more information on the workforce and help inform policy. The data will be used in workforce planning and used to monitor equality and diversity. Data published in this statistical release is derived using information from the Pupil Level Annual School Census (PLASC) and should continue to be used as the official statistics on school workforce and for comparisons over time. The latest SWAC statistical release was published on 14 July 2026 as official statistics. Once the quality of the data collected through SWAC has been assured and any differences explained, the SWAC release will provide the official statistics on the school workforce.

Please see the School Workforce Annual Census: background, quality and methodology information report for more details on the SWAC collection and a comparison of data items collected in SWAC and PLASC (relating to qualified teachers, teacher sickness absence and teacher recruitment and retention).

The table shows that there were 23,407 FTE qualified teachers in local authority maintained schools as at January 2026, down 323 compared with January 2025.

There were also 23,585 FTE support staff in local authority maintained schools as at January 2026, down 649 compared with January 2025.

Local authority maintained schools

Schools maintained by the local authorities. The authorities meet their expenditure partly from council tax and partly from general grants made by the Welsh Government.

Independent schools

Schools which charge fees and may also be financed by individuals, companies or charitable institutions.

Nursery schools

Age under 5.

Primary schools

Ages 3/4 to 10.

Middle schools

Ages 3/4 to 16/18.

Secondary schools

Ages 11 to 16/18.

Special schools

Special schools, both day and boarding, provide education for children of any age 3 or over with ALN or SEN who cannot be educated satisfactorily in mainstream schools.

School language category

The guidance for categorising schools according to Welsh medium provision has been updated. Primary, middle and secondary schools can now describe the language of the school according to the following options. Schools can select more than one category to describe their provision if needed.

• C1 - English medium school/provision
• T2 - English medium school/provision or those with a high proportion of Welsh provision transitioning to being a dual language (Welsh and English) school/provision over time
• C2 - Dual language (Welsh and English) school/provision
• T3 - Dual language (Welsh and English) school/provision transitioning to being a Welsh medium school/provision over time
• C3 - Welsh medium school/provision
• CP - Designated Welsh medium secondary school/provision

In this release we have defined Welsh medium, dual language and English medium schools in the following way. This is to simplify the grouping of schools given the number of different combinations that are possible due to schools being able to select more than one category.

• Welsh medium – T3, C3, CP or C3 and CP
• Dual language – T2, C2 and any school recording more than one category (except C3 and CP)
• English medium – C1

Full-time equivalent (FTE)

FTE pupil numbers count part-time pupils as 0.5.

FTE of part-time teachers expresses the teachers’ service in hours as a proportion of a school week: 32.5 hours for maintained schools and 26 hours for independent schools.

Pupil teacher ratio (PTR)

Calculated by dividing the FTE number of pupils by the FTE number of qualified teachers (head teachers, acting head teachers, assistant head teachers, deputy heads and other qualified teachers).

Additional learning needs (ALN) - Individual Development Plans

Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are statutory plans created under the Additional Learning Needs and Education Tribunal (Wales) Act 2018, which came into force on 1 September 2021. A learner may have either a school maintained IDP or a local authority maintained IDP.

Special educational needs (SEN)

Under the SEN system learners could have Statements, School Action or School Action Plus. The SEN system has now been replaced by the ALN system, which has been fully implemented since September 2025 following a four-year rollout.

Pupils with statements

Pupils for whom the authority maintains a statement of SEN under Part iv of the Education Act 1996. A statement may be issued by the local authority after assessment of a child’s needs.

School Action

When a class or subject teacher identify that a pupil has SEN they provide interventions. These are additional to or different from those provided as part of the school’s usual curriculum.

School Action Plus

When the class or subject teacher and the SEN Co-ordinator are provided with advice or support from outside specialists. This is so that alternative interventions additional or different to those provided for the pupil through 'School Action' can be put in place. The SEN Co-ordinator usually takes the lead although day-to-day provision continues to be the responsibility of class or subject teacher.

Infant class sizes

The Schools Standards and Framework Act 1998 and associated regulations placed a statutory duty on local authorities and governing bodies to limit the size of:

• reception classes to 30 from 1999
• reception and Year 1 classes to 30 from 2000
• reception, Year 1 and Year 2 classes to 30 from 2001

Mixed year or mixed Key Stage classes are subject to the limit, where the majority of the class is made up of pupils in the appropriate year groups. This includes mixed nursery/reception classes.    

Official statistics status

All official statistics should show the standards of the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistics Authority).

These are accredited official statistics. They were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR) in July 2010. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics.

It is Welsh Government’s responsibility to maintain compliance with the standards expected of accreditation. If we become concerned about whether these statistics are still meeting the appropriate standards, we will discuss any concerns with OSR promptly. Accreditation can be cancelled or suspended at any point when the highest standards are not maintained, and reinstated when standards are restored.

Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

Statement of compliance with the Code of Practice for Statistics

Our statistical practice is regulated by the OSR. OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

All of our statistics are produced and published in accordance with a number of statements and protocols to enhance trustworthiness, quality and value. These are set out in the Welsh Government’s Statement of Compliance.

These accredited official statistics (OSR) demonstrate the standards expected around trustworthiness, quality and public value in the following ways.

Trustworthiness

The data in this release relates to all maintained and independent schools in Wales. Data for maintained schools is derived from the PLASC returns supplied by schools open on census day, which is usually in January each year. The returns are authorised by headteachers and validated by local authorities. Independent schools complete an aggregate STATS1 return which is authorised by headteachers.

The data collection and validation is carried out between January and May. The data is normally published in July or August.

These statistics are published in an accessible, orderly, pre-announced manner on the Welsh Government website at 9:30am on the day of publication.

This output adheres to the Code of Practice by pre-announcing the date of publication through the upcoming calendar web pages.

Quality

The published figures provided are compiled by professional analysts using the latest available data and applying methods using their professional judgement and analytical skillset. Statistics published by Welsh Government adhere to the Statistical Quality Management Strategy which supplements the Quality pillar of the Code of Practice for Statistics (UK Statistics Authority) and the European Statistical System principles of quality for statistical outputs.

PLASC is an electronic collection of pupil and school level data. Schools record data on pupils and the school throughout the year in their Management Information System (MIS) software. This data is collated into an electronic PLASC return and submitted to the Welsh Government through DEWI, a secure online data transfer system developed by the Welsh Government. Various stages of automated validation and sense-checking are built into the process to ensure a high quality of data to inform policy making and funding.

The census data in this release relate to the position on Tuesday 20 January 2026. DEWi was available for uploading files on 20 January 2026. Schools and local authorities were then asked to validate their data within the validation period, which closed on 29 May 2025.

Due to the level of COVID-19 cases in January 2022, the 2022 census date was delayed to 15 February 2022. School closures between December 2020 and March 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic meant that the 2021 census date was delayed to 20 April 2021.

FSM eligibility data, 2020 to 2022

In 2023 we carried out additional validation of the data with local authorities on pupils eligible for free school meals. Please see our 'Chief Statistician’s update: updated data on pupils eligible for free school meals published following additional validation exercise'.

The result of this additional validation showed that some pupils who were only receiving FSM due to transitional protection or through the universal primary free school meal policy had been incorrectly recorded as being eligible for FSM via the means-tested criteria (pupils are eligible for FSM if their parents or guardians are in receipt of certain means-tested benefits or support payments, see Free school meals: information for parents and carers).

Since 2023 we have developed additional validation rules which have helped to identify any issues with the FSM eligibility data at an earlier stage. We then work with local authorities during the validation period to ensure that correct data is provided.

ALN/SEN data, 2021 to 2025

The ALN system was implemented between January 2021 and August 2025, replacing the SEN system. Leading up to and during implementation of the ALN system there was a fall in ALN/SEN learners due to schools’ systematic review of learners with an additional learning need. Some learners supported through School Action and School Action Plus (under the previous SEN system) were not re-identified as ALN/SEN in PLASC. This was either because their needs were short term, or they did not require provision additional to, or different from, that which is provided for other learners.

The ‘General learning difficulties’ category was also removed from the 2023 PLASC onwards. This category was being used to record those requiring catch up support, with minor needs and/or where multiple needs existed, instead of its original intent, which was to capture learners awaiting assessment.

Value

These statistics are used in a variety of ways. Some examples of these are:

• resource allocation in the Welsh Local Government Finance Settlement and the Pupil Development Grant
• advice to ministers
• to inform the education policy decision-making process in Wales including school reorganisation
• to inform Estyn during school inspections
• the education domain of the Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation
• to assist in research in educational attainment

This release is accompanied by an Open Document Spreadsheet which can be shared and reused widely and which complies with the Government Analysis Function guidance on Releasing statistics in spreadsheets. More detailed tables are available on StatsWales, a free to use service that allows visitors to view, manipulate, create and download data. The data will also be published on My Local School, a website designed to open up access to school data for parents and all others with an interest in their local school.

The commentary and notes in the release have been developed to try to make the information as accessible as possible to the widest range of users. Furthermore, all our school statistics outputs are published in Welsh and English.

Comparability

England

Statistics: school and pupil numbers (Department for Education)

Statistics: education and training UK (Department for Education)

Scotland

School education statistics (Scottish Government)

Northern Ireland

Education statistics (Department of Education, Northern Ireland)

Well-being of Future Generations Act (WFG)

The Well-being of Future Generations Act 2015 is about improving the social, economic, environmental and cultural well-being of Wales. The Act puts in place seven well-being goals for Wales. These are for a more equal, prosperous, resilient, healthier and globally responsible Wales, with cohesive communities and a vibrant culture and thriving Welsh language. Under section (10)(1) of the Act, the Welsh Ministers must (a) publish indicators (“national indicators”) that must be applied for the purpose of measuring progress towards the achievement of the Well-being goals, and (b) lay a copy of the national indicators before the National Assembly. Under section 10(8) of the Well-being of Future Generations Act, where the Welsh Ministers revise the national indicators, they must as soon as reasonably practicable (a) publish the indicators as revised and (b) lay a copy of them before the Senedd. These national indicators were laid before the Senedd in 2021. The indicators laid on 14 December 2021 replace the set laid on 16 March 2016.

Information on the indicators, along with narratives for each of the wellbeing goals and associated technical information is available in the Wellbeing of Wales report.

Further information on the Well-being of Future Generations (Wales) Act 2015.

The statistics included in this release could also provide supporting narrative to the national indicators and be used by public services boards in relation to their local wellbeing assessments and local wellbeing plans.

School statistics
Email: school.stats@gov.wales

Media: 0300 025 8099

SFR 65/2026

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