Students enrolled in primary and secondary schools in New Zealand

Note that gender data collected via School Roll Returns will likely take several years to build an accurate picture of ākonga who identify as Another Gender or Not Stated. Few reasons for this are:
The overwhelming majority of Another Gender and Not Stated responses in the School Roll Returns for 2023 came from schools whose SMS has already had the ability to record non-binary gender options for years. Ākonga and their whānau may not be aware that their school’s Student Management System (SMS) can now record this information and report it to the Ministry. In most cases, demographic data such as gender is only updated by ākonga and their whānau when they start school or change schools e.g. primary to secondary school.

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.

Included school types are: Full Primary, Secondary, Intermediate, Composite, Restricted Composite, Correspondence School, Special School, Contributing, Teen Parent Unit.

Decile was replaced with the Equity Index for funding purposes in 2023. 2022 is the last year when Decile is used for reporting purposes.

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.

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.

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.