Official Statistics

Rural education and childcare

Updated 9 August 2022

Applies to England

This document is part of the larger compendium publication the Statistical Digest of Rural England, a collection of rural statistics on a wide range of social and economic government policy areas.

The Statistical Digest of Rural England is an official statistics publication meaning these statistics have been produced to the high professional standards set out in the Code of Practice for Official Statistics.

More information on the Official Statistics Code of Practice can be found on the Code of Practice web pages.

These statistics allow comparisons between the different rural and urban area classifications. The Rural-Urban Classification is used to distinguish rural and urban areas. The Classification defines areas as rural if they fall outside of settlements with more than 10,000 resident population.

More information on the Rural-Urban Classification can be found on the Rural-Urban Classification web pages.

Any enquiries regarding this publication contact us at:

Defra statistics: rural

Email rural.statistics@defra.gov.uk

You can also contact us via Twitter: https://twitter.com/DefraStats

Last updated: 26th May 2022

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This publication will eventually be updated to include all of our rural education statistics. It currently only contains statistics on secondary education.

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Secondary education

Summary

The introduction of a new secondary school accountability system in 2016 has changed how GCSE performance is measured. A 9 to 1-point measure was introduced to replace the A* to G system, where a 9 to 4 score is equivalent to the previous A* to C measure. Data from 2016/17 presents the new 9 to 4 measure, whereas data prior to 2016/17 presents the previous A* to C measure.

In the 2018/19 academic year, 70 per cent of pupils living in rural areas left school with English and Maths GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (equivalent to A* to C). This was higher than for urban areas (64 per cent) and England overall (65 per cent).

For a given level of deprivation, the attainment levels of pupils living in rural areas were lower than for pupils living in urban areas with a similar level of deprivation.

There is a wide variation in the English and Maths GCSE attainment results for Local Authority District (LAD) areas, but at the regional level attainment is higher in rural areas.

Pupils leaving school with English and Maths at grades A* to C or equivalent at GCSE level, based on residency of pupils

The introduction of a new secondary school accountability system in 2016 has changed how GCSE performance is measured. A 9 to 1-point measure was introduced to replace the A* to G system, where a 9 to 4 score is equivalent to the previous A* to C measure. On the chart below, data from 2016/17 onwards presents the new 9 to 4 measure, whereas data prior to 2016/17 presents the previous A* to C measure.

The proportion of pupils achieving English and Maths A* to C grades or equivalent in their GCSEs at the end of Key Stage 4 (end of secondary-level education), based on residency of pupil:

• increased between 2010/11 and 2018/19 for both rural and urban areas
• was always at least 5 percentage points higher in rural than in urban areas
• was 6.1 percentage points higher in rural than urban areas in 2018/19

Achievement of English and Maths GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent in England, based on pupil residence 2010/11 to 2018/19

Percentage of pupils leaving school with English and Maths GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent, based on residency of pupils in England

	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14(a)	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17(b)	2017/18	2018/19
Rural areas	64.4	64.1	65.7	63.7	64.7	68.8	69.7	69.5	70.1
Urban areas	57.7	58.5	60.6	58.2	58.4	62.3	63.2	63.5	64.0
England	59.0	59.5	61.6	59.1	59.5	63.4	64.3	64.5	65.0

Notes

• The 2011 Rural-Urban Classification was introduced from 2013/14 this prevents comparison with previous years. This break in the series is denoted by a vertical dashed line on the chart and by labelling the table column as 2013/14(a).
• In 2016/17 the new 9-point scale for GCSE classification was introduced. On this scale a grade 4 or above is equivalent to the old A* to C measure. This change of classification is denoted by the second vertical dashed line on the chart and by labelling the table column as 2016/17(b).
• Data in the table above are available broken down by a more detailed rural-urban classification in the rural living supplementary data tables.

Pupils leaving school with English and Maths A* to C grades or equivalent at GCSE level, based on Income Deprivation Affecting Children Indices (IDACI) decile and residency of pupils

Results by the level of deprivation in the area where the pupil lives (using the Income Deprivation Affecting Children Index (IDACI) adds context to the results presented above by taking into account the circumstances of children outside the influence of the school.

When comparing results using deprivation level (IDACI decile bands), rural areas had lower achievement levels in English and Maths for almost all levels of deprivation compared with urban areas.

The differing outcome at the aggregated rural level (rural areas seeing higher levels of attainment) and individual deprivation levels is explained by the different proportions of deprivation within rural and urban areas overall.

In rural areas in 2018/19, 26 per cent of pupils were in areas with the highest levels of deprivation (decile bands 0 to 50) compared with 60 per cent of pupils in urban areas. Those pupils in these more deprived areas generally had lower achievement levels compared with those in less deprived areas (decile bands 50 to 100) where there are proportionately more pupils in rural areas. This factor results in a higher attainment average overall for rural pupils and the converse for urban pupils.

Achievement of English and Maths GCSEs at a 9 to 4 pass in England, based on Income Deprivation Affecting Children Indices (IDACI) decile and residency of pupil (2018/19)

Percentage of pupils leaving school with English and Maths GCSEs at a 9 to 4 pass (equivalent to A* to C) in England, based on IDACI decile and residency of pupil (2018/19)

The lower the IDACI decile, the greater the level of deprivation.

IDACI Decile	0-10	10-20	20-30	30-40		40-50	50-60	60-7	70-80	80-90	90-100
England	48.4	54.0	58.0	61.1		64.9	68.1	71.1	74.4	77.2	82.2
Urban areas	48.4	54.1	58.1	61.0		65.1	68.2	71.8	74.7	77.7	82.7
Rural areas	48.2	53.2	56.6	61.6		64.2	67.7	70.8	73.6	76.0	80.3

Notes

Data in the table above are also available in the rural living supplementary data tables with the inclusion of total pupil numbers in rural and urban areas for each of the IDACI deciles.

Pupils leaving school with English and Maths at GCSE level, by geographical residency of pupils

In the South and East of the country the proportion of students achieving a 9 to 4 pass in English and Maths is above the England average (65 per cent), whilst in the North and the Midlands the proportion is below the England average. Nationally 16.5 per cent of pupils at the end of Key Stage 4 (KS4) in the 2018/19 academic year lived in rural areas. This varies from one in ten KS4 pupils in the North West region to almost one in three in the South West region.

Attainment in rural areas is higher than in urban areas in every region and the trend for lower attainment in the Midlands and the North is not replicated for rural areas.

Percentage of Key Stage 4 pupils living in rural and urban areas within each region of England

There is a wide variation in the English and Maths GCSE A* to C grades or equivalent attainment results at Local Authority District (LAD) area level. The proportion of pupils achieving these results in their English and Maths GCSEs at the end of Key Stage 4 was highest in Rushcliffe at 86 per cent (a Predominantly Rural local authority district) and lowest in Knowsley at 50 per cent (a Predominantly Urban local authority district). The urban area with the highest attainment was St Albans (81 per cent of pupils obtaining grade 9 to 4 in Maths and English). Only one Predominantly Rural local authority district (Tendring) had less than 55 per cent of pupils achieving grades 9 to 4 in Maths and English. The locations of the 4 authorities are shown as annotations on the subsequent map.

Percentage of pupils leaving school with English and Maths GCSEs at a 9 to 4 pass (equivalent to A* to C) and a 9 to 5 pass in England, based on the residency region of pupils (2018/19)

Region		Number of eligible pupils	Percentage achieving English and Maths 9-5 pass	Percentage achieving English and Maths 9-4 pass
North East		25,300	40	62
	Rural	4,400	42	65
	Urban	20,900	39	61
North West		73,400	41	63
	Rural	7,200	50	72
	Urban	66,300	40	62
Yorkshire & the Humber		54,000	42	63
	Rural	8,700	49	71
	Urban	45,300	40	62
East Midlands		47,200	42	64
	Rural	12,100	48	71
	Urban	35,100	40	61
West Midlands		60,600	40	62
	Rural	7,600	48	71
	Urban	53,000	39	61
East		60,500	43	65
	Rural	16,400	46	69
	Urban	44,100	42	64
Outer London		53,800	51	70
	Rural	100	50	72
	Urban	53,700	51	70
Inner London		26,400	46	67
	Rural	-	64	91
	Urban	26,400	46	67
South East		85,600	46	67
	Rural	16,400	52	72
	Urban	69,100	45	66
South West		51,200	43	65
	Rural	16,100	45	68
	Urban	35,100	42	64
England		538,000	44	65
	Rural	89,000	48	70
	Urban	449,000	43	64

Notes

• In the table above the number of eligible pupils has been rounded to the nearest 100 pupils. So a ‘–’ means that the true value is between 1 and 49 pupils.
• In 2016/17 the new 9-point scale for GCSE classification was introduced. On this scale a grade 4 or above is equivalent to the old A* to C measure.
• Data in the table above are available without rounding, and with an additional column for the percentage of pupils entering GCSE Maths and English, in the rural living supplementary data tables.

Proportionally more Predominantly Urban Local Authorities had less than 60 per cent of pupils obtaining a 9 to 4 pass in GCSE Maths and English than for Predominantly Rural Local Authorities. Similarly, proportionally more Predominantly Rural Local Authorities had at least 75 per cent of pupils obtaining a 9 to 4 pass in GCSE Maths and English than urban areas.

In 52 per cent of Predominantly Rural Local Authorities, at least two-thirds of students obtained a 9 to 4 pass in GCSE Maths and English in 2018/19. The median percentage of pupils obtaining a 9 to 4 pass in GCSE Maths and English for Predominantly Rural Local Authorities is higher than for Predominantly Urban Local Authorities (67 per cent compared to 64 per cent).

The distribution of Local Authority English and Maths 9 to 4 pass attainment levels based on the rural urban classification of pupil residence (2018/19)

Coastal Local Authority District areas also show a pattern of lower attainment levels. Most of the authorities with high attainment levels can be found in the West Midlands and the South East. Very few Local Authorities with high attainment are found in the North and none of these are in the North East.

Local Authority English and Maths 9 to 4 pass attainment levels based on location of pupil, by settlement type, in England (2018/19)

Pupils leaving school with English and Maths A* to C grades or equivalent at GCSE level, based on school location

The proportion of pupils achieving English and Maths A* to C grades or equivalent in their GCSEs at the end of Key Stage 4 (end of secondary level education) based on school location was 3.3 percentage points higher in rural than urban areas in 2018/19.

The percentage of pupils achieving English and Maths GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent was higher for pupils who went to school in rural areas than for those who went to school in urban areas each year between 2010/11 and 2018/19.

Achievement of English and Maths GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent in England, based on school location 2010/11 to 2018/19

Percentage of pupils leaving school with English and Maths GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent, based on location of schools in England

	2010/11	2011/12	2012/13	2013/14(a)	2014/15	2015/16	2016/17(b)	2017/18	2018/19
Rural areas	61.9	61.6	63.5	60.9	62.0	66.5	67.6	67.3	67.8
Urban areas	58.4	59.2	61.2	58.8	59.2	62.8	63.7	64.0	64.5
England	58.9	59.5	61.5	59.1	59.5	63.3	64.2	64.4	64.9

Notes

• The 2011 Rural-Urban Classification was introduced from 2013/14 this prevents comparison with previous years. This break in the series is denoted by a vertical dashed line on the chart and by labelling the table column as 2013/14(a).
• In 2016/17 the new 9-point scale for GCSE classification was introduced. On this scale a grade 4 or above is equivalent to the old A* to C measure. This change of classification is denoted by the second vertical dashed line on the chart and by labelling the table column as 2016/17(b).
• Data in the table above are available broken down by a more detailed rural-urban classification in the rural living supplementary data tables.

Achievement of English and Maths GCSEs at grades A* to C or equivalent in England, comparing achievement for pupils residing in rural areas and all students at rural schools, 2010/11 to 2018/19

There will be differences between pupil residency and location of school as some pupils living in rural areas will travel to schools in urban areas and vice versa. The data show that those who live in rural areas have a higher attainment than those who attend schools in rural areas. In both cases the level of attainment is higher than the England average.