Local Authorities With the Highest School Absence Rates in England

Persistent absence — pupils missing 10% or more of school sessions — has become one of the defining challenges facing English education since the pandemic. In 2023/24, 20.0% of pupils in state-funded schools were persistently absent, down from 22.5% in 2021/22 but still nearly double the pre-pandemic rate of 10.9%.

This analysis ranks local authorities by their pupil-weighted persistent absence rate, using DfE school-level data for the 2023/24 academic year.

The top 10 local authorities

Knowsley on Merseyside has the highest persistent absence rate in the country at 26.1%, across 59 schools serving over 21,000 pupils. More than one in four pupils regularly misses school — 31% above the national average.

Bradford follows at 24.9%, with the second highest rate but by far the largest affected population: nearly 99,000 pupils across 200 schools. Blackpool is close behind at 24.7%, with Middlesbrough at 24.5%.

Bristol at 24.4% completes the top five. As a major city in the South West, its presence challenges any simple narrative about absence being a northern problem.

A national challenge, not a regional one

The top 10 spans every part of England. Knowsley and Rochdale represent the North West. Sunderland the North East. Bradford Yorkshire. Middlesbrough Teesside. But Bristol and Torbay in the South West rank 5th and 6th. Westminster represents inner London and Birmingham the West Midlands.

Birmingham at 22.9% stands out for its sheer scale. With over 204,000 pupils across 409 schools, it has the largest number of persistently absent children of any local authority in England.

Westminster in central London at 22.9% is a reminder that high absence is not limited to areas outside the capital.

The common thread is not geography but deprivation. These areas share higher-than-average levels of child poverty, regardless of region.

The national picture since the pandemic

The national persistent absence rate almost doubled from 10.9% in 2018/19 to 22.5% in 2021/22. Recovery has been gradual: 21.2% in 2022/23 and 20.0% in 2023/24.

At 20.0%, the national rate remains 83% above the pre-pandemic level of 10.9%. One in five pupils is still regularly missing school — a significant improvement from the post-pandemic peak, but far from a return to normal.

What drives high absence?

Research consistently links persistent absence to deprivation, mental health difficulties and disengagement from learning. In areas like Knowsley and Blackpool, multiple disadvantage factors compound: higher rates of child poverty, fewer educational support services and greater prevalence of health conditions that affect attendance.

The pandemic also shifted attendance norms. In Middlesbrough and Torbay, schools report that some families now treat regular attendance as optional — a cultural shift that is proving harder to reverse than the practical barriers.

Looking ahead

The government's ambition is to return persistent absence to pre-pandemic levels. For Knowsley at 26.1%, this would mean reducing its rate by more than half — from over one in four pupils to roughly one in ten.

The direction of travel since 2021/22 is positive: the national rate has fallen by 2.5 percentage points in two years. The challenge is ensuring improvement reaches the communities where absence is most entrenched.