Department of Education figures · 1975/76 to 2025/26
Official enrolment figures for all 3,067 schools since 1975/76: pupils in every class, class sizes, and how each school has changed over 10 years.
Every figure comes from the Department of Education's published enrolment returns.
One school
Pupils in every class since 2020/21, girls and boys, class sizes, and the school's change over 10 years. Follow one group of pupils as they move up.
St Patricks NS · Dublin 15
Near you
Search around a town, townland, Eircode or your own location, from 2 to 25 km. Each filter shows how many schools it would return, and every search can be shared or downloaded.
Filters, with schools nationally
Change over time
Every school, county and planning area compared with 10 years ago, and switchable to 5 or 20 years. Since 2015/16, 785 schools grew by 10% or more and 1,225 fell by as much.
Each county's pupils and the change over 10 years, since 2015/16. Most growth and most fall:
Local areas
The Department's 314 school planning areas, 79 of which cross county boundaries. Each has its own trends, every school in it, and CSV downloads.
| Planning area | Counties | Pupils | Since 2015/16 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Limerick City | Clare, Limerick | 12,836 | +2.5% |
| Galway City | Galway | 9,032 | +1.1% |
| Drogheda | Louth, Meath | 8,513 | +0.5% |
| Waterford | Kilkenny, Waterford | 7,676 | +0.5% |
Areas are recorded from 2023/24, so earlier years leave out schools that closed before then. Why
252 schools teach all subjects through Irish, and 129 are in Gaeltacht areas.
Explore Irish-medium schoolsPupils by Irish classification, 2025/26
150 special schools with 10,126 pupils in 2025/26, each with its pupils over time, teachers and SNAs, and the special classes near it.
See special schoolsDownload CSV files for any school, planning area or Find schools search, ready for a spreadsheet.
Download from Find schoolsThe national picture
535,600 pupils in 2025/26, −6,779 (−1.2%) on 2024/25. That is 4.3% below the 2018/19 peak of 559,548.
Dotted lines bridge 1983/84 to 1992/93, where no usable source data exist. 1974/75 is left out because that year's source file is missing five counties. About the data
3,067
3,029 in 1975/76
174.6
155.6 in 1975/76
21.94
−0.24 on 2024/25
A page for every special school, with its pupils, teachers and SNAs, and the special classes near it.
Class teachers for every school since 2006/07, and all teaching posts where they're known.
Open a school on Google Maps, read its inspection reports, or tell us about a detail that looks wrong.
Tabs to jump between sections, and every part of a school page fits a phone.
The Department of Education's published primary schools enrolment figures, 1975/76 to 2025/26.
Pupils, girls and boys for every year; pupils by class from 2020/21, and class sizes from 2006/07.
No usable data for 1983/84 to 1992/93. Planning areas are recorded from 2023/24.