How many children are home educated in England?
Checked 16 September 2026
Local authorities reported 126,000 children in elective home education in England on the autumn 2025 census day, which is 1.5% of children of comparable ages. Across the whole of the 2024/25 academic year, 175,900 children were home educated at some point.
Those are two different measurements and the gap between them is the point: home education is not one fixed group. Children move into it and out of it during a year, and the year-long number is always much larger than any single day's.
The numbers, and what each one counts
| Measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| On the autumn 2025 census day | 126,000 children |
| On the autumn 2024 census day | 111,700 children |
| Share of children of comparable ages, autumn 2025 | 1.5% |
| At any point during 2024/25 | 175,900 children |
| At any point during 2023/24 | 153,300 children |
Department for Education, elective home education releases. The academic-year figures count any child who was home educated at any point in that year.
The census day count rose by about 14,300 between autumn 2024 and autumn 2025, close to 13% in a single year. The academic-year count rose by 22,600 over the equivalent period.
Why families say they do it
The DfE asks local authorities to record a reason. The honest headline is that almost 3 in 10 are still recorded as unknown to the authority or as no reason given, so the figures below describe the cases where somebody wrote one down.
- Mental health, 16%. The most commonly recorded reason in autumn 2025.
- Philosophical or preferential reasons, 12%. The next most common: a considered choice rather than a reaction to something.
- Almost 3 in 10 unknown or not given. Which means any confident story about why families leave school is built on about seven tenths of the data.
Read carefully, the two leading reasons pull in opposite directions. One is a family leaving something that was hurting a child. The other is a family choosing something they wanted from the start. Both are ordinary, and a service built for only one of them serves half the people who arrive.
What 126,000 actually looks like
It is more children than live in a small English city, and it is still a small fraction of the school population. Both of those are true, and which one you notice usually depends on what you already thought.
For a parent considering it, the useful reading is neither. It is that you would be joining something large enough to have groups, meet-ups and second-hand resources in almost every county, and small enough that the school gate will treat it as unusual.
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Start your 7-day free trialCommon questions
- How many children are home educated in England?
- Local authorities reported 126,000 children in elective home education on the autumn 2025 census day, 1.5% of children of comparable ages. 175,900 children were home educated at some point during the 2024/25 academic year.
- Is home education increasing in England?
- Yes. The census day count rose by about 14,300 between autumn 2024 and autumn 2025, close to 13% in a year. The Department for Education cautions that part of the rise reflects the collection becoming mandatory in autumn 2024 rather than more children.
- Why do parents home educate?
- Among cases where a reason was recorded in autumn 2025, mental health was the most common at 16% and philosophical or preferential reasons next at 12%. Almost 3 in 10 are recorded as unknown or no reason given.
- Do you have to tell anyone if you home educate in England?
- If your child has never been registered at a school you are not required to tell the local authority. If they are on a school roll you write to the school to deregister, and the school informs the authority.