Pupils in primary and lower secondary school

Updated: 15 December 2023

Next update: Not yet determined

Change in the number of private schools
Change in the number of private schools
2013 - 2023
42.6
%
Primary and lower secondary schools and pupils by ownership. Absolute figures and change in per cent
Primary and lower secondary schools and pupils by ownership. Absolute figures and change in per cent
2023Per cent change
2013 - 20232022 - 2023
Primary and lower secondary schools, total2 711-6.7-1.1
Private schools27842.60.0
Public schools2 433-10.5-1.0
Pupils, total637 0513.50.0
Pupils in private schools30 98662.23.1
Pupils in public schools606 0651.7-0.1
Explanation of symbols

Selected tables and charts from this statistics

  • Primary and lower secondary schools. Pupils in primary and lower secondary school
    Primary and lower secondary schools. Pupils in primary and lower secondary school
    School yearSchools, totalType of schoolPupils
    Primary schoolsCombined schoolsLower secondary schoolsPupils, totalPrimary levelLower secondary level
    20132 9071 669748490615 327425 917189 410
    20142 8861 656738492618 996430 864188 132
    20152 8671 636738493623 755438 387185 368
    20162 8581 615746497629 275444 638184 637
    20172 8481 601746501633 029447 355185 674
    20182 8301 585741504636 350448 655187 695
    20192 7991 548749502636 250446 218190 032
    20202 7761 539744493635 497443 967191 530
    20212 7611 527741493634 674439 644195 030
    20222 7401 506741493636 934437 855199 079
    20232 7111 477743491637 051434 422202 629
    Explanation of symbols
  • Pupils in primary and lower secondary school who receive special education, by county. 1 October
    Pupils in primary and lower secondary school who receive special education, by county. 1 October
    2023
    Pupils, total1st-7th grade8th-10th gradeShare of pupils who receive special education totalShare of pupils who receive special education 1th-7th gradeShare of pupils who receive special education 8th-10th grade
    Total637 051434 422202 6298.17.010.2
    Viken158 340107 68250 6587.56.69.5
    Oslo69 61348 53221 0817.36.39.6
    Innlandet39 44826 54212 9067.86.89.7
    Vestfold og Telemark48 83333 02715 8068.06.810.7
    Agder39 49526 73512 7609.68.112.7
    Rogaland65 28744 70920 5787.36.29.7
    Vestland76 92952 67424 2557.76.99.3
    Møre og Romsdal31 58921 48010 1099.38.510.9
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage54 98637 61617 3708.67.610.9
    Nordland - Nordlánnda26 40917 9238 48610.08.812.5
    Troms og Finnmark - Romsa ja Finnmárku25 90217 3438 5599.811.8
    Svalbard22015961:::
    Explanation of symbols
  • Pupils who receive special education. Total number and proportion.
    Pupils who receive special education. Total number and proportion.
    School yearTotal number of pupilsPupils who recieve special education, totalProportion of pupils who recieve special education
    2018636 35049 7557.8
    2019636 25048 9397.7
    2020635 49748 6847.7
    2021634 67449 2467.8
    2022636 93449 8147.8
    2023637 05151 2858.1
    Explanation of symbols
  • Primary and lower secondary pupils and primary and lower secondary schools, by ownership
    Primary and lower secondary pupils and primary and lower secondary schools, by ownership
    Schools, totalPrivate schoolsPupils, totalPupils in private schools
    20132 907195615 32719 105
    20142 886208618 99620 434
    20152 867215623 75519 399
    20162 858229629 27520 562
    20172 848244633 02923 817
    20182 830252636 35025 370
    20192 799261636 25027 027
    20202 776267635 49728 100
    20212 761270634 67429 037
    20222 740278636 93430 045
    20232 711278637 05130 986
    Explanation of symbols
  • Schools and pupils by school size. Per cent
    Schools and pupils by school size. Per cent
    Primary and secondary schoolsPupils
    0-99 pupils100-299 pupils300 pupils or more0-99 pupils100-299 pupils300 pupils or more
    201629.840.030.26.635.557.9
    201729.539.830.76.634.858.6
    201828.740.131.26.234.659.2
    201928.339.732.06.133.860.2
    202028.039.932.26.133.860.1
    202127.840.132.16.134.159.9
    202227.739.532.86.133.360.6
    202326.840.332.95.833.760.5
    Explanation of symbols
  • Pupils with native language training, bilingual education, adapted education and additional training in Norwegian, by county. 1 October
    Pupils with native language training, bilingual education, adapted education and additional training in Norwegian, by county. 1 October
    2023
    Pupils, totalPupils with native language training onlyPupils with native language training and bilingual educationPupils with bilingual education onlyAdapted educationPupils with additional training in Norwegian
    Total637 0512 2441 0878 3091 56048 046
    Viken158 34039571 8321568 735
    Oslo69 6139930714 304
    Innlandet39 44850635323202 692
    Vestfold og Telemark48 83312241 229452 488
    Agder39 495810449392 100
    Rogaland65 287834291 3711274 246
    Vestland76 9291 4001299861884 763
    Møre og Romsdal31 58911134371142 169
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage54 9865262347253273 476
    Nordland - Nordlánnda26 4097434861091 590
    Troms og Finnmark - Romsa ja Finnmárku25 90299762321281 477
    Svalbard22000006
    Explanation of symbols
  • Pupils with native language training and additional training in Norwegian
    Pupils with native language training and additional training in Norwegian
    School yearPupils, totalPupils with mother language training and/or bilingual educationPupils with additional training in Norwegian
    2019636 25011 61041 003
    2020635 49710 62439 808
    2021634 67410 37439 725
    2022636 93411 37243 949
    2023637 05113 20048 046
    Explanation of symbols
  • Pupils, by official form of Norwegian and county. 1 October
    Pupils, by official form of Norwegian and county. 1 October
    2023
    PupilsOfficial form of Norwegian "bokmål"Official form of Norwegian "nynorsk"Official form of Norwegian "samisk"
    Total637 051556 74172 498904
    Viken158 340155 6774900
    Oslo69 61368 37420
    Innlandet39 44836 4172 8310
    Vestfold og Telemark48 83346 6241 6910
    Agder39 49537 7541 3310
    Rogaland65 28749 93414 1450
    Vestland76 92939 86836 8640
    Møre og Romsdal31 58916 33915 1340
    Trøndelag - Trööndelage54 98654 316627
    Nordland - Nordlánnda26 40926 366135
    Troms og Finnmark - Romsa ja Finnmárku25 90224 8523842
    Svalbard22022000
    Explanation of symbols

About the statistics

The purpose of the statistics is to provide useful information about the state of primary and lower secondary school. The statistics are meant to cover the need of information of both educational authorities and other interested parties.

Education Act. The Education Act regulates both primary, lower secondary and upper secondary education, including education of adults on corresponding educational levels. The Education Act is in force from the school year of 1999/00.

Primary and lower secondary education. Primary and lower secondary education is obligatory to attend for all. It is also a given right to attend public primary and lower secondary school. The municipality is responsible for the fulfilment of this right for children and youths under the age of 16, according to the Education Act section 13-1. Children are usually enrolled in primary schools the calendar year they complete 6 years of age. Lower secondary school is usually finished after the 10th grade. Primary and lower secondary education includes education of persons above primary and lower secondary school age, that receives education on corresponding levels.

School year. The time allocated to teaching shall not be less than 38 weeks within a framework of 45 consecutive weeks during the school year. The school year normally starts on August 1st each year.

Pupils in primary and lower secondary school. Children and young people that, in accordance with the Education Act section 2-1 have the right and obligation to undertake primary and lower secondary education. This usually applies to children and young people from 6 to 15 years of age. It also includes persons older than 15 who get education on primary or lower secondary school level.

Grade. The grades in primary and lower secondary schools span from 1st to 10th grade. All pupils are transferred to the next grade each year.

Primary/lower secondary. Primary school consists of 1st to 7th grade. Lower secondary school consists of 8th to 10th grade.

Primary and lower secondary schools. Primary and lower secondary schools are municipal, county municipal or state schools for primary and lower secondary education, according to the Education Act section 13-1, or private (chartered) primary and lower secondary schools approved under the Education Act.

Official form of Norwegian. The official form of Norwegian (bokmål, nynorsk or samisk) used by the school.

Minority language pupils. Refers to persons with a different mother tongue than Norwegian or Sami. Mother tongue refers to the language that is used in a person's home.

Mother language training. Mother language training is training in the mother tongue of minority language pupils.

Additional training in Norwegian (for minority language pupils). Additional training in Norwegian for minority language pupils is either an additional training in Norwegian for minority language pupils, or training in Norwegian for minority language pupils as a separate subject, or a combination of the above.

Special Eduacation. Refers to the Education Act § 5-1, which states that pupils who are not able to gain from ordinary education are entitled to special education.

The Norwegian Standard Classification of Education, which was created by Statistics Norway in 1970, groups the educational activity. The standard has been revised; the latest version is from 2000. The type of educational institution is classified by the International Standard Industrial Classification of all Economic Activities (NOS C 182).

Name: Pupils in primary and lower secondary school
Topic: Education

Not yet determined

Division for Education and Culture Statistics

The Statistics are published at municipal, county and national level.

Annually, final numbers in December.

The data is delivered to OECD, UNESCO and Eurostat.

Collected and revised data are stored securely by Statistics Norway in compliance with applicable legislation on data processing.

Statistics Norway can grant access to the source data (de-identified or anonymised microdata) on which the statistics are based, for researchers and public authorities for the purposes of preparing statistical results and analyses. Access can be granted upon application and subject to conditions. Refer to the details about this at Access to data from Statistics Norway.

The Purpose of Grunnskolens informasjonssystem (GSI) is to collect all necessary information for planning and official statistics related to primary and lower secondary education in Norway. All information about education of children and adults on a primary and lower secondary level, in accordance with the Education Act, is to be included in GSI.
From 1992 onwards, GSI is the source for the official statistics.

Prior to 2011 there were two releases of statistics; preliminary and final figures. From 2011 and onwards there is only one release; final figures.

In addition to statistical purposes, the data collected through GSI serves as an important information source for the Ministry of Education and Research, the Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (UDIR), the County Governors and the local governments.

No external users have access to statistics before they are released at 8 a.m. on ssb.no after at least three months’ advance notice in the release calendar. This is one of the most important principles in Statistics Norway for ensuring the equal treatment of users.

Data from GSI is also used in KOSTRA (local governments-state reporting).

The statistics are developed, produced and disseminated pursuant to Act no. 32 of 21 June 2019 relating to official statistics and Statistics Norway (the Statistics Act).

Regulation (EC) No 0452/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 April 2008 concerning the production and development of statistics on education and learning. Commission Regulation (EU) No 88/2011 of 2 February 2011 implementing Regulation (EC) No 0452/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning, as regards statistics on education and training systems.

The population includes all primary and lower secondary schools, both private and public. Norwegian schools abroad are not included. Schools without pupils are not included.

The fullscale annual collection of data is obtained from Grunnskolens informasjonssystem, GSI.

Editing is defined here as checking, examining and amending data.

The statistics are based on annual reports by the schools and municipal authorities to central authorities. Every autumn the schools report the situation on October 1 and their plans for the current school year. The municipal authorities are responsible for the schools under their domain, the County Governors are responsible for privately run schools and the municipalities in their jurisdiction.

Municipal authorities and the education department in each corresponding County Governors office edit the data. There are also controls undertaken by Statistics Norway, and The Norwegian Directorate for Education and Training (Udir).

Not relevant

Interviewers and everyone who works at Statistics Norway have a duty of confidentiality. Statistics Norway has its own data protection officer.

Statistics Norway does not publish figures where there is a risk of identifying individual data about persons or households [enter the correct unit here, where applicable].

The ‘[suppression, rounding up/down, perturbation]1’ method is used in these statistics to ensure this.

More information can be found on Statistics Norway’s website under Methods in official statistics, in the ‘Confidentiality’ section.

The lowest level for publishing is the municipal level. For special teaching and minority language teaching, cells with less than 3 are not published.

GSI is the source of the primary and lower secondary school statistics from 1992 and later. Tables based on earlier statistics are comparable to tables based on GSI. The time series might be interrupted by changes succeeding amendments to the Education Act. There is no collection of data regarding classes after 2003, as teaching from then on was organized in groups rather than classes. From 2011/2012 special schools and ordinary schools are merged. In order to have comparable figures, special schools and ordinary schools have been merged also for previous years. For this reason, statistics published before 2012, will diverge from the statistics published in 2012.

Errors in data collected from administrative registers can be caused by uncertainties in the definition of variables and values between those responsible for the registers and others responsible for data collection from the registers.

Other sources of error can be the quality of the personal and school data in the registers or the registration process of data input into the registers. Such errors can affect the quality of the data if the control and revision processes in Statistics Norway are not comprehensive enough.

A revision is a planned change to figures that have already been published, for example when releasing final figures as a follow-up to published preliminary figures. See also Statistics Norway’s principles for revisions.

Revisions in previously published seasonally adjusted figures can take place when new observations (or revised previous observations) are included in the basis of calculation. The scope of the revision is usually greatest in the most relevant part (last 1–2 years) of seasonally adjusted time series. A corresponding revision in trends is also typical, particularly at the end of the time series. The extent of the revision of trends and seasonally adjusted figures is partly determined by the revision policy, see Section 4 of the European Statistical System (ESS) Guidelines on Seasonal Adjustment on the Eurostat website. For more information on the revision of seasonally adjusted figures, see the ‘About seasonal adjustment’ section in the relevant statistics.

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