Unfilled primary school places, 2009–10 to 2023–24

A line chart from the Institute for Government of unfilled primary school places, 2009–10 to 2023–24, where the number of vacant places has risen sharply in recent years. After remaining between 440,000–460,000 for much of the 2010s, unfilled places climbed to over 610,000 in 2023–24 - the highest level on record.

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Source: Institute for Government analysis of DfE, 'School capacity', 2023–24.Notes: The number of unfilled places is the total number of places that could be physically provided (a different measure to the published admissions number), minus the number of pupils on roll. Only covers places in reception upwards in state-funded mainstream primary schools in England. Data for 2019–20 is not available due to the Covid pandemic.Get the dataEmbed Download image