Students enrolled in New Zealand schools with a religious affiliation
By affiliation, as at July 2025, number of students
| School affiliation | Number of students |
|---|---|
| Anglican | 15,558 |
| Jewish | 136 |
| Presbyterian | 10,619 |
| Roman Catholic | 69,124 |
| Seventh Day Adventist | 2,105 |
| Reformed Congregation of New Zealand | 161 |
| Hare Krishna | 194 |
| Non-Denominational | 18,478 |
| Muslim | 996 |
| Pentecostal | 1,651 |
| Methodist | 341 |
| Open Brethren | 74 |
| New Life Church of New Zealand | 912 |
| Abundant Life Centre | 0 |
| Baptist | 0 |
Notes
Affiliation: This dimension is most commonly represented for state integrated schools. The religious or organisational affiliation of schools, for example, Roman Catholic, Montessori. Only schools that requested an affiliation are included in that affiliation group.
Limitations of the data
Schools can and do make amendments to their roll data outside of a collection period if they notice mistakes that affect their funding entitlements, often brought about by audit visits. These changes will not be reflected in the roll data that has been published.
Inclusions
Included school types are: Full Primary, Secondary, Intermediate, Composite, Restricted Composite, Correspondence School, Special School, Contributing, Teen Parent Unit.
Changes to data collection/processing
Decile was replaced with the Equity Index for funding purposes in 2023. 2022 is the last year when Decile is used for reporting purposes.
Data provided by
Dataset name
School Roll Returns: Time Series Data for Trend Analysis 2025
Webpage:
https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/statistics/school-rolls
How to find the data
At URL download Excel spreadsheet titled 'Time series: Data for trend analysis 1996-2025' under 'Time series data' headline.
Figure.NZ edited the file for processing purposes.
Import & extraction details
File as imported: School Roll Returns: Time Series Data for Trend Analysis 2025
From the dataset School Roll Returns: Time Series Data for Trend Analysis 2025, this data was extracted:
- Sheet: Affiliation
- Range:
C4:AF34 - Provided: 900 data points
This data forms the table Schooling - Student roll by school affiliation 1996–2025.
Dataset originally released on:
November 2025
About this dataset
The Ministry of Education carries out statistical collections (roll returns) from New Zealand schools at different times during the year.
The data reported here is based on the 1 July roll returns since it provides detailed information on age and ethnicity for trend analysis.
Purpose of collection
The Ministry uses the collected 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.