Tallybook

Guide · For everyone

How many children are home educated in your area?

The Department for Education publishes a figure for every council in England. You can look yours up in a couple of minutes. Nationally, 126,000 children were in elective home education on census day in autumn 2025, about 1.5% of children aged 5 to 16.

Last checked 10 November 2026.

How to look up your council

  1. Go to the Department for Education's "Elective home education" statistics page.
  2. Open the data tables, or choose "create your own table".
  3. Select "Elective home education at census date".
  4. Filter by local authority and pick yours.

You will get a count for each term, with breakdowns by sex and year group.

Two different numbers

On census day. A snapshot of one day each term. This is the figure most often quoted.

At any point in the year. Every child who was home educated at some time in the academic year. This is always higher, because children start and stop during the year.

Nationally, 175,900 children were home educated at some point in 2024/25.

Reading your council's figure carefully

  • A high number is not a verdict. The Department says counts should not be read as good or bad practice.
  • The figures only cover children the council knows about. Children who never went to school may be missing. The register is meant to change that.
  • Recording has improved. The collection became mandatory in autumn 2024, so some of the rise reflects better counting.
  • Small councils jump around. A few families moving can shift the rate.

Why it matters to you

Parents: a larger home-educating population usually means more groups, more shared knowledge and a council team with more experience.

Providers: it is a rough guide to how many home-educated children live within reach of you.

Outside England

Wales publishes its own figures. The Welsh Government reports 7,176 home-educated children known to councils in 2024 to 2025, up from 2,517 in 2018 to 2019. Scotland has said it will explore collecting national figures.

When the numbers update

The Department publishes once a year. The next release is due in winter 2026.

Sources