We’ve created an interactive map which shows the ratio of children between the ages of 5-16 years old which are home educated in their respective local authorities*.
View the map in full screen
The southeast tops the charts for the highest concentration of home educated children in England
Click here to see the map in full screen.
The southeast of England has the highest ratio of home educated children in England with Medway in Kent topping the charts with roughly 1 in 100 children opting to study at home.
The region with the highest levels of home education is on the Isle of Wight; for every 1000 children aged between 5-16 there are roughly 12 who have opted to be schooled outside of traditional education. The Scilly Isles is the second most popular region for homeschoolers where 11 children per 1000 stay at home to complete their studies. Rutland has the lowest ratio of home educated children; 0.08% of children between the age of 5-16 receive their education at home.
North – South Divide
There are more than twice as many home educated children in the southeast than in the North East. The exception to this trend is in Darlington where 6.5 per 1000 pupils are educated outside the conventional school system.
London
Click here to see the map in full screen.
Meanwhile in the capital, home education is not popular. Two of London’s local authorities rank in some of the lowest concentrations of home educated students in the country, among them are Westminster and Lambeth where only 0.14% and 0.12% of 5-16 year olds study at home. Greenwich has the highest ratio of homeschooled children. However there are some local authorities surrounding the capital which are part of the top ten such as Kent and Medway.
Methodology
- Number of children home educated in each local authority was collected by Fiona Nicholson of edyourself.org. She sent Freedom Of Information (FOI) requests to each local authority in England and published it on her website. She gave us permission to use the data providing her research was credited.
- The number of children aged 5-16 in England and the respective counties and local authorities was taken from the Office for National Statistics, figure estimations are based on the 2011 Census.
* The data relies on the number of home educated children recorded by local authorities during the 2013-2014 period. It is not compulsory for home educated children to be registered with the local authority.
