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Education Counts data via eolas

Education Counts is the Ministry of Education's official statistics portal — covering schools, early childhood education (ECE), tertiary institutions, attendance, attainment, funding, and outcomes. eolas serves 38 datasets from Education Counts.

If you're doing education-policy research, school-performance analysis, demographic + enrolment forecasting, or labour-market follow-on analysis (qualification → wages) — this is the source.

What's in the catalogue

Schools — counts + characteristics

Dataset Description
edcounts_number_of_schools Annual count of NZ schools at 1 July, by sector (primary / composite / secondary / special), authority (state / state-integrated / private), and region.
edcounts_attendance Regular + provisional attendance rates by term, year, region, decile, year level.
edcounts_homeschooling Annual homeschooled student counts by region + year level.
edcounts_ors Annual count of ORS (Ongoing Resourcing Scheme) students — special education funding for high-needs children.

Funding

Dataset Description
edcounts_funding_to_schools Annual operational + resourcing funding to NZ schools, by funding type, school sector, and region.
edcounts_finances Broader education-system finances.
edcounts_apprenticeship_boost Apprenticeship Boost scheme payments + recipient counts.

Student support

Dataset Description
edcounts_financial_support_for_students Student support payments + recipient counts.
edcounts_fees_free Fees-Free tertiary policy uptake + funding (2018+).

Achievement + outcomes

Dataset Description
edcounts_achievement_and_attainment NCEA + UE achievement statistics.
edcounts_beyond_study Post-study outcomes (employment, earnings, further study).
edcounts_early_leaving_exemptions Early-leaving exemptions granted.
edcounts_reading_recovery Reading Recovery programme participation + outcomes.

Tertiary + international

Dataset Description
edcounts_international_students Annual international student enrolments by country of origin, education sector, region.
edcounts_initial_teacher_education Teacher-training programme enrolments + completions.
edcounts_micro_credentials Micro-credential enrolments (NZQA-approved short courses).

Language + cultural

Dataset Description
edcounts_maori_language_in_schooling Te reo Māori-medium + immersion school participation.
edcounts_pacific_language_in_schooling Pacific language education participation.
edcounts_language_use_in_ece Language of instruction in ECE settings.

Plus 18+ other datasets covering specific programmes + cohorts. Browse: eolas.fyi/datasets?source=Education+Counts.

Refresh schedule

Quarterly. Education Counts publishes most series annually (after each academic year closes), with quarterly updates to attendance + enrolment series. Our refresh runs weekly to catch new releases promptly.

meta = client.info("edcounts_number_of_schools")
meta["last_refreshed_at"]
meta["source_last_modified_at"]

License

All Education Counts data is published under CC-BY 4.0. Commercial use is fine; attribution required.

Recommended attribution: "Source: Education Counts (Ministry of Education), served via eolas (eolas.fyi). CC-BY 4.0."

Common patterns

School-attendance trend

att = client.education_counts("edcounts_attendance", start="2018-01-01")
by_term = att.groupby(["year", "term"])["regular_attendance_rate"].mean().reset_index()
by_term.plot(x="term", y="regular_attendance_rate", title="NZ school regular attendance rate")

library(ggplot2)
att <- eolas_get_education_counts("edcounts_attendance", start = "2018-01-01")
ggplot(att, aes(date, regular_attendance_rate)) + geom_line() +
  labs(title = "NZ school regular attendance rate")

Schools count + composition

schools = client.education_counts("edcounts_number_of_schools")
# Latest year, by sector
latest = schools[schools["year"] == schools["year"].max()]
print(latest.groupby("sector")["count"].sum().sort_values(ascending=False))

International student source countries

intl = client.education_counts("edcounts_international_students")
# Latest year, top countries
latest = intl[intl["year"] == intl["year"].max()]
top = latest.groupby("country")["enrolments"].sum().sort_values(ascending=False).head(15)
print(top)

Source-specific notes

  • NZ school year = calendar year: terms 1-4 run February-December. "2024" data means full 2024 academic year.
  • Decile system retired in 2023: schools are now classified by Equity Index (EQI) — a continuous score. Older Education Counts datasets reference decile; newer use EQI. Some series carry both for continuity.
  • Attendance rates: "regular" = present > 90% of half-days. "Provisional" = > 80%. Different rates aren't directly comparable across series — check the methodology in source metadata.
  • State-integrated vs state: state schools are fully state-funded; state-integrated (often religious) have some private character but accept state funding. Count separately for compositional analysis.
  • ORS funding cohort is small but high-cost: ~10,000 students receive ORS funding for high learning needs. Per-student cost much higher than mainstream.
  • Tertiary data lags: most tertiary statistics are 12-18 months after the calendar year (allows for full enrolment + completion reconciliation). 2023 data was published mid-to-late 2024.

Where to find more