School leavers staying on at school until age 17 in New Zealand

By gender, 2011–2021, number of school leavers

The following information applies to all values in the table. Unit: Number, Measure: School leavers staying on at school to age 17
Year	Gender	Number of school leavers
2011	Female	25,619
2012	Female	25,235
2013	Female	26,617
2014	Female	25,232
2015	Female	25,813
2016	Female	25,837
2017	Female	26,721
2018	Female	25,974
2019	Female	25,462
2020	Female	25,266
2021	Female	26,449
2011	Male	25,139
2012	Male	24,537
2013	Male	25,829
2014	Male	24,715
2015	Male	25,462
2016	Male	25,261
2017	Male	25,910
2018	Male	25,195
2019	Male	24,155
2020	Male	24,691
2021	Male	25,700

Notes

Definitions

Retention Rate: Percentage of students staying on at school to age 17.
School leavers: School leavers in 2021 are students that permanently left school to enter the workforce and/or undertake further education and training outside of the compulsory schooling system sometime between 1 March 2021 and the last day of February 2022 (inclusive). School leavers are identified using ENROL.

Inclusions

Domestic students who were aged less than 19 in their first enrolment in ENROL; including alternative education students, students 16 or over on 1 March 2021 and students attending teen parent units.
Students with leave reason; 'end of schooling' or 'early leaving exemption'
Students with leave reason 'transferred to another school in New Zealand' or 'transferred to home schooling' but did not re-enrol in another school according to ENROL
Students with leave reason 'gone overseas permanently', who meet the age criteria
Students who attend for a period of time at the start of 2020 but leave before 1 March 2021 are counted with 2020 leavers.

Exclusions

Returning adult students (aged 19 or more) with a year gap in their attendance
Exchange and International fee-paying students
Students who successfully transferred to another school in New Zealand or to home schooling
Deceased students.