Data on numbers of faith schools in England, and pupils at faith schools by primary or secondary status.
Click on the spreadsheet here to download data from 1998-2015.
Data from 2010-2015 were gathered from GOV.UK. Data from 1998-2009 were gathered from archived statistics on the National Archives website. See within the spreadsheet for links to sources.
It appears that definitions may have changed over time since there was a jump in the number of non-denominational schools between 1999 and 2000. A distinction between other schools and other Christian schools was introduced from 2000. Look at the numbers for each year closely; there are surprising jumps in some cases (particularly the ‘Other’ category) which merit caution with regard to interpretation.
Maintained school numbers had shown secular decline for some years but from about 2010 have showed an aggregate increase, partly due to the effects of the economy on private school numbers and partly through rising birth rates. The percentage of primary school pupils educated in the faith sector has remained stable overall although composition is changing slightly, with decline in overall school and pupil numbers in the Anglican and Catholic systems, and increase in other Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh schools (although overall numbers are very small particularly in the latter two categories).
Eddie You can email them to c.d.field@bham.ac.uk Best wishes. Clive