Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many and what proportion of state schools in England are classified as (a) rural town and fringe, (b) in a sparse setting, (c) rural village and hamlet, (d) urban, (f) urban major conurbation, (g) urban minor conurbation and (h) urban city and town.
Table 1 below details the number of state[1] schools in England at each rural/urban classification.
Table 2 below details the percentage of state schools in England at each rural/urban classification.
Table 1
| Number of schools | ||
Rural/Urban Classification | Primary | Secondary | All-through |
Rural hamlet and isolated dwelling | 731 | 48 | 4 |
Rural hamlet and isolated dwellings in a sparse setting | 83 | 3 | 0 |
Rural town and fringe | 1766 | 325 | 8 |
Rural town and fringe in a sparse setting | 83 | 33 | 1 |
Rural village | 2051 | 58 | 7 |
Rural village in a sparse setting | 153 | 6 | 1 |
Urban city and town | 6422 | 1511 | 64 |
Urban city and town in a sparse setting | 24 | 11 | 0 |
Urban major conurbation | 4900 | 1124 | 79 |
Urban minor conurbation | 553 | 106 | 5 |
Table 2
Rural/Urban Classification | Percentage of state schools |
Rural hamlet and isolated dwelling | 3.88% |
Rural hamlet and isolated dwellings in a sparse setting | 0.43% |
Rural town and fringe | 10.41% |
Rural town and fringe in a sparse setting | 0.58% |
Rural village | 10.50% |
Rural village in a sparse setting | 0.79% |
Urban city and town | 39.67% |
Urban city and town in sparse setting | 0.17% |
Urban major conurbation | 30.27% |
Urban minor conurbation | 3.29%[2] |
Information about all open and closed schools in England is available on Get Information about Schools[3] (the Department’s register of schools). This can be found at:
www.get-information-schools.service.gov.uk.
[1] The Ofsted definition of a state funded school has been used. This definition does not include local authority maintained nursery schools, alternative provision or special schools.
[2] The percentages used have been rounded to two decimal places.
[3] Responsibility for updating Get Information about Schools is shared between the Department, schools and local authorities and therefore we cannot guarantee the accuracy of this data.