ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority) Australian Data Release 2024
Whether you are a Principal, Board Member, Business Manager, Enrolment and Admissions Manager, or some other senior executive within your school, the ACARA data tells you how the schools market is going overall and how your school is going by comparison.
ACARA data gives us the Full Time Equivalent number of students for each school, and groups the schools into Government, Catholic and Independents. It also breaks the data down to male and female students and has some other data by individual school.
The latest ACARA data was released on the 14th February 2024 showing data from 2008 to 2023.
Over the period 2022 to 2023, the total number of students increased by 49,076 students or 1.21% Australia wide.
Across Australia, Independent and Catholic schools market share increased from 2022 to 2023 and Government schools market share decreased (again).
School Type Analysis
Independent schools increased their market share from 17.02% to 17.49%, whilst Catholic Schools increased from 18.34% to 18.43%, and Government schools decreased from 64.64% to 64.09%
In actual numbers, Catholic schools moved from 742,691 to 755,373 FTE students, an increase of 12,681 students or 1.71%.
Independent schools moved from 689,395 to 716,848 students, an increase of 27,453 students or 3.98%.
Government schools still increased by 8,941 or 0.34%, but it was well below the 1.21% increase Australia wide.
State or Territory Analysis
If we look at which States and Territories increased and decreased by category and Total, we see Victoria increasing with the highest % of Total students and NT decreasing the most.
Whilst Independent and Catholic enrolments grew in every State and Territory, Government education only increased in Victoria and WA, and decreased in all other States and territories.
Victoria Analysis
In Victoria, the total number of students rose from 2022 to 2023 by 20,649 students, or 2.04%.
In 2022 there were 1,013,533 students rising to 1,034,193. Victoria and WA had the highest % increase in student numbers, and Victoria’s growth % in Independent schools was the highest in Australia.
Independent schools grew the most by 4.73%, whilst Government schools grew 1.74% and Catholic schools by 0.92% (surprisingly less than Government schools).
We can possibly attribute this to three reasons:
- Government schools are opened in new areas before the Catholic or Independent schools arrive.
- There is still an aftermath from the COVID years with parents moving their children out of Government schools during the lock downs.
- Some large Islamic schools open in the high growth areas in Sydney and Melbourne are classified as Independent schools with very low fees and are in strong competition with Government schools at the primary levels.
New South Wales Analysis
NSW increased Total student numbers by 9,017 and saw a decrease in the number of students attending Government schools. The big winner was independent schools, probably for reasons similar to Victoria.
Catholic education also increased by 4,613 students or 2.07% which is an improvement over last year.
Queensland Analysis
Queensland showed a growth in Total students of 8,181 or 0.94%. This was a strong positive to Independent schools increasing by 4.54%, and Catholic schools did reasonably as well with an increase of 2.12%. Government schools decreased by 1,533 student and this was a drop of 0.27%
Tasmania Analysis
In Tasmania, the Total number of students from 2022 to 2023 dropped by 502, with Government Schools losing the most students (1,086), and Independents grew, followed by Catholic. The % drop in Government schools is the highest loss in any Australian state or territory.
Western Australia Analysis
Western Australia had growth of 9.245 students overall, representing an increase of 2.04% All sectors showed growth, and as expected the Independent schools exceeded Catholic and Government with an increase of 3.98%
South Australia Analysis
South Australia had small growth overall, and showed a loss in students to government schools, and again the greatest increase to independent schools.
Australian Capital Territory Analysis
ACT had small overall growth of 0.87%, with the big winners being independent schools increasing 4.55%, and again Government schools losing students by 0.16%
Northern Territory Analysis
Northern Territory dropped more than any other state or territory in % number of total students with a loss of 0.80%. Government education dropped by 1.29% and both Catholic and Independent numbers increase slightly.
If you are an existing user of our online mapping system, or GeoMapping Level 3 through Somerset Education, the new data has been uploaded directly.
You can also compare the above figures with last year’s data here.
School Example – Fictitious Jells College – Enrolments by Year
When we prepare information for one of the more than 9,000 schools across Australia, , it looks like the following:
School Name: Jells College
Website: https://www.jells.vic.edu.au
Campus Type: School Single Entity
School Sector: Independent
School Type: Combined
Full Time Equivalent Teaching Staff: 95.1
Full Time Equivalent Non-Teaching Staff: 40.3
Total Enrolments: 1203
Girls Enrolments: 576
Boys Enrolments: 627
Student / Teaching Staff Ratio: 12.6 students per FTE teaching staff
You can have a look at the free School Network Planning Sample Map online at https://map.spectrumanalysis.com.au/mapserver/MktSchoolStrategicPlanning_Free/Map.html
If you have not tried our mapping systems, learn more about the services we provide to schools and educational facilities at https://spectrumanalysis.com.au/services/education-analysis/
If you would like more information about your individual school, please contact us directly.