Number of private school students in Australia - Data and Analysis (1993-2034)

The number of private school students is set to reach 1.62 million in 2027, up 2.1% from the previous year. Growth in the population aged five to 18 accounts for a large portion of this increase, driven in part by overseas migration, which is expanding the number of young-family households and school-aged children, particularly in outer-suburban growth corridors where private providers are well placed to add capacity. Funding shortfalls across government schools have also worked in favour of private providers and Australian parents have increasingly treated private enrolment as an investment in their children's future. This preference holds despite cost-of-living pressures on household budgets, as parents continue to prioritise education ahead of other spending.Private school enrolments have gained ground on government schools over the past five years. Independent schools have captured a growing share of the student population, accounting for 17.2% of all enrolments nationally in 2025, up from around 16% five years earlier. Private school students now make up a larger share of Australia's total student population than at the start of the period.Enrolment at non-government schools has grown consistently over the past decade, maintaining a relatively stable share of overall student enrolments at around 35%. However, non-government schools accounted for 37.2% of enrolments in 2025 as government school numbers continued to slip. Rising numbers of high-income earners, combined with the perceived quality advantage of private education, have supported long-term growth in private enrolments. Religious beliefs, the availability and quality of sporting and music programs, access to better facilities and the desire to build networks that benefit children in the long term all shape parents' decisions to enrol in private schools. Fees have climbed steadily, yet a 2026 survey by Independent Schools Australia of more than 1,500 parents found that 75% had adjusted their household budgets in the past year to keep their children in their preferred school and 28% had cut back on essentials like groceries and medicines to cover fees.The Federal Government implemented a funding model for primary and secondary education under the Australian Education Act 2013, which took effect on 1 January 2014. The reforms introduced the Schooling Resource Standard (SRS), recommended by the Gonski Review. The standard sets a per-student amount plus loadings for various types of disadvantage and accounts for parents' incomes and other sources of private income. Schools receive additional funding to meet the needs of disadvantaged students, including those with disabilities, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander students and students with low English proficiency. From January 2025, the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement (BFSA) replaced the National School Reform Agreement. Under the agreement's Full and Fair Funding component, the Commonwealth lifted its contribution from 20% to 25% of the SRS, placing government schools on a pathway to 100% of their funding entitlement between 2025 and 2034.Australia operates one of the most privatised high school systems in the developed world. A January 2026 report from the Australia Institute found that more than 40% of Australian high school students attend private schools, the second-highest rate of private schooling in the developed world. By comparison, 8% of high school students in the United Kingdom attend fee-paying schools, and 9% do so in the United States. Outside the Australian Capital Territory, most government schools have yet to gain the minimum funding they're legislated to receive. ABS figures show total student enrolments climbed by 3.2% between 2021 and 2025. Independent schools drove that expansion with enrolments up 15.3% over the period, while Catholic schools grew a more modest 5.7% and government school enrolments contracted by 0.4%. Overall, IBISWorld forecasts the number of private school students to expand at a compound annual rate of 2.5% over the five years through 2027.