Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in New Zealand
New Zealand: Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school was 83.8% in 2024. ▼ Falling
Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in New Zealand, 2014–2024
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
In 2024, share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in New Zealand stood at 83.8%.
That represents a change of up 1.9% on the previous year and down 6.5% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in New Zealand peaked at 92.7% in 2017 and was at its lowest, 78.5%, in 2022.
New Zealand ranks 51st of 178 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 11 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010s | 90.2% | 86.3% | 92.7% | 6 |
| 2020s | 82.7% | 78.5% | 84.5% | 5 |
Countries ranked near New Zealand
More education data for New Zealand
- Duration of pre-primary education 2 years (2025)
- Official entrance age to pre-primary education 3 years (2025)
- Primary school starting age 5 years (2025)
- Population ages 15-64 64.5% (2025)
- Population ages 0-14 17.9% (2025)
- Lower secondary school starting age 11 years (2025)
- School enrollment, primary 96.7% (2024)
- Primary education, teachers 26,597 (2024)
- Fertility rate vs. average years of schooling 1.66 live births per woman (2024)
- School enrollment, primary, female 96.8% (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in New Zealand?
- Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in New Zealand was 83.8% in 2024, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest share of children enrolled in pre-primary school recorded in New Zealand?
- The highest recorded value was 92.7% in 2017.
- What is the lowest share of children enrolled in pre-primary school recorded in New Zealand?
- The lowest recorded value was 78.5% in 2022.
- How does New Zealand rank for share of children enrolled in pre-primary school?
- New Zealand ranks 51st out of 178 countries with data for 2024.
- Is share of children enrolled in pre-primary school rising or falling in New Zealand?
- Over the last ten years it is down 6.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this New Zealand data come from?
- The figures come from UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 11 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
The share of children of pre-primary school age (typically 3–5 years old) who are enrolled in pre-primary education.