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Primary and lower secondary education

How many pupils are there on average in a classroom? How many continue to 10th form? The statistics on primary and lower secondary education include preschool class up to and including 10th form and can be broken down by institution type and form level.

Selected statistics on Primary and lower secondary education

This page shows selected popular statistics on the subject of Primary and lower secondary education. In Statbank Denmark, you can find more data and compile your own statistics.

Development in the number of pupils

Here you can see the development in the number of pupils in primary and lower secondary school.
More about the figure
Last update
31.1.2024
Next update
29.1.2025
Source data

The sources of the Danish primary and lower secondary education statistics are collected through administrative systems of the schools. Statistics Denmark has in collaboration with the system suppliers of the administrative systems established requirements for reporting formats, validation and error searches. A thorough validation of data is carried out by Statistics Denmark prior to linking of the primary and lower secondary education school data with rest of the education data, resulting in the formation of The Student Register.

Average number of pupils at each form level

Here you can see the average number of pupils per class for primary and lower secondary education as well as for each form level.
More about the figure
Last update
22.3.2024
Next update
18.3.2025
Source data

The sources of the Danish primary and lower secondary education statistics are collected through administrative systems of the schools. Statistics Denmark has in collaboration with the system suppliers of the administrative systems established requirements for reporting formats, validation and error searches. A thorough validation of data is carried out by Statistics Denmark prior to linking of the primary and lower secondary education school data with rest of the education data, resulting in the formation of The Student Register.

Pupils by type of school

Here you can see pupils at each form level in primary and lower secondary education broken down by various types of school.
More about the figure
Last update
31.1.2024
Next update
29.1.2025
Source data

The sources of the Danish primary and lower secondary education statistics are collected through administrative systems of the schools. Statistics Denmark has in collaboration with the system suppliers of the administrative systems established requirements for reporting formats, validation and error searches. A thorough validation of data is carried out by Statistics Denmark prior to linking of the primary and lower secondary education school data with rest of the education data, resulting in the formation of The Student Register.

HAVE YOU SEEN?
From primary and lower secondary education to continued education
See what the pupils are up to after they have left the primary and lower secondary education system.
HAVE YOU SEEN?
Upper secondary education
See how many pupils are in upper secondary and vocational education and training.

On the statistics – documentation, sources and method

Gain an overview of the purpose, contents and quality of the statistics. Learn about the data sources of the statistics, the contents of the statistics and how often they are published.

See the documentation of statistics to learn more:

Highest Education Attained

The purpose of the statistics on educational attainment is to give an overall statistical description of the educational level of the population at any given time. The primary data source to these statistics is the Student Register with data from 1970 onwards. In addition, the Qualification Register is used. Since the Student Register is the primary source for information, the Attainment Register gives nearly complete coverage from 1970 onwards. There is, however information before this time coming from The Qualification Register.

Primary and lower secondary education

The purpose of the statistics on the Danish primary and lower secondary education is to present the number of pupils and the scale of pupils per class in the Danish school system. The statistics describe the intake and graduation from the basic school system, which in Denmark are the primary and lower secondary schools. In the present form, the statistics are comparable from 2007, from 2009 for number of pupils per class and from 2012 for special needs education.

Teacher-student register for primary school

The Matched Educational Data for primary and lower secondary education level (MED-Elementary) serves the purpose of enriching the elementary school statistics with information about the individual lessons. The data registry has been developed for research purposes and provides the possibility to study who receives teaching together and who executes the teaching. So far, the register covers the school year of 2020/2021 and 2021/2022 .

The Student Registre

The Students Register, which was established in the early 1970's, is a longitudinal register that allow you to follow the educational careers of students in the mainline education system. The purpose of The Student Register is to analyze entrance to, enrolment in and graduation from the mainline education system as well as transmissions of student within the system.

Need more data on Primary and lower secondary education?

You can go on searching on your own in Statbank Denmark. Find detailed figures, e.g. on the ancestry and age of the pupils and on special needs education.