Attainment at age 11

Data on the percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by the age of 11 years, by socio-economic background.

Summary main findings

In the 4 school years from September 2015 to July 2019, the percentage of pupils who met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by 11 years old went up from 53% to 65%. It went down to 59% in the 2021 to 2022 school year.

In the 9 school years from September 2010 to July 2019, the gap between pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds and non-disadvantaged pupils (the ‘disadvantage gap’) went down. It then went up in the 2021 to 2022 school year to the highest level since 2012.

In the 2021 to 2022 school year:

• 43% of disadvantaged pupils and 66% of non-disadvantaged pupils met the expected standard
• 47% of disadvantaged girls and 39% of disadvantaged boys met the expected standard, compared with 70% of non-disadvantaged girls and 61% of non-disadvantaged boys
• there were large variations between pupils eligible for free school meals (FSM) in different ethnic groups – for example, 76% of FSM-eligible pupils from the Chinese ethnic group met the expected standard, compared with 12% of Gypsy or Roma pupils
• disadvantaged pupils in London, the West Midlands, and Tees Valley and Durham were the most likely to meet the expected standard out of all regions – pupils in southern and eastern parts of England were the least likely to

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By disadvantage status over time

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2, by disadvantage status over time (England, September 2015 to July 2022)

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Percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2, by disadvantage status over time (England, September 2015 to July 2022)

School year	Disadvantaged (%)	Not known to be disadvantaged (%)	All pupils (%)
2021/22	43	66	59
2020/21	No data	No data	No data
2019/20	No data	No data	No data
2018/19	51	71	65
2017/18	51	70	64
2016/17	47	67	61
2015/16	39	60	53

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By year

Disadvantage attainment gap index over time (England, September 2010 to July 2022)

Disadvantage attainment gap index over time (England, September 2010 to July 2022)

School year	Disadvantage attainment gap index
2021/22	3.23
2020/21	No data
2019/20	No data
2018/19	2.91
2017/18	2.90
2016/17	3.00
2015/16	3.03
2014/15	3.10
2013/14	3.15
2012/13	3.16
2011/12	3.23
2010/11	3.34

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By area

Percentage of students meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by the end of key stage 2, by region and eligibility for free school meals (FSM) (England, September 2012 to July 2022)

41 regions in the UK are ranked from the lowest to highest percentages. They are then divided into 5 equally-sized groups (‘quintiles’), from 1 (lowest) to 5 (highest).

The regional estimates have a large margin of error – do not rank or compare specific regions.

The lines either side of the dots represent confidence intervals – the range of values that the 'true' value for each region is highly likely to be within. In many cases the confidence intervals overlap. This suggests differences between specific regions may not be statistically significant.

See the composite indices for more precise estimates and to understand overall regional patterns.

Q1 - Lowest 20%

Q5 - Highest 20%

Percentage of students meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths by the end of key stage 2, by region and eligibility for free school meals (FSM) (England, September 2012 to July 2022)

Region	FSM eligible (%)	Not FSM eligible (%)
Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire	37.4	62.5
Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire	36.0	64.6
Cheshire	40.0	66.5
Cornwall and Isles of Scilly	37.7	59.7
Cumbria	36.9	61.1
Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire	40.0	63.5
Devon	37.3	62.2
Dorset and Somerset	35.8	61.6
East Anglia	35.0	59.4
East Yorkshire and Northern Lincolnshire	43.1	64.0
Essex	38.9	64.4
Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Bath/Bristol area	36.3	63.7
Greater Manchester	42.4	64.9
Hampshire and Isle of Wight	36.3	63.0
Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire	38.3	64.5
Inner London - East	54.9	71.4
Inner London - West	57.8	76.0
Kent	39.1	64.8
Lancashire	39.7	62.9
Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire	40.6	64.2
Lincolnshire	37.5	60.9
Merseyside	39.4	63.6
North Yorkshire	34.9	63.5
Northumberland and Tyne and Wear	43.6	67.3
Outer London - East and North East	50.4	70.2
Outer London - South	46.8	71.3
Outer London - West and North West	48.3	71.1
Shropshire and Staffordshire	40.4	63.2
South Yorkshire	38.4	63.8
Surrey, East and West Sussex	36.4	63.9
Tees Valley and Durham	44.1	68.2
West Midlands	45.1	63.1
West Yorkshire	39.8	64.2

Show 13 more rows

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By sex

Percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2, by disadvantage status and sex (England, school year 2021 to 2022)

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Percentage of pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2, by disadvantage status and sex (England, school year 2021 to 2022)

Disadvantage status	Boys (%)	Girls (%)
Disadvantaged	39	47
Not known to be disadvantaged	61	70

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By ethnicity

Percentage of FSM-eligible pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2, by ethnicity (England, school year 2021 to 2022)

Percentage of FSM-eligible pupils meeting the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at key stage 2, by ethnicity (England, school year 2021 to 2022)

Ethnicity	FSM eligible	Not FSM eligible
Asian - Bangladeshi	63	69
Asian - Chinese	76	70
Asian - Indian	59	75
Asian - Pakistani	51	61
Asian - Any other Asian	53	72
Black - Black African	56	66
Black - Black Caribbean	41	56
Black - Any other Black background	48	62
Mixed - White and Asian	49	74
Mixed - White and Black African	50	68
Mixed - White and Black Caribbean	39	58
Mixed - Any other Mixed background	48	70
White - White British	38	64
White - Irish	34	71
White - Gypsy/Roma	12	18
White - Traveller of Irish heritage	15	20
White - Any other White background	44	64

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About the data

Data source

Department for Education. National curriculum assessments at key stage 2 in England, 2022

Time period

September 2010 to July 2022

Geographic area

England

What the data measures

The data shows the percentage of pupils who met the expected standard in reading, writing and maths at the end of key stage 2, when pupils are usually 11 years old.

Disadvantaged pupils are those who:

• were registered as eligible for free school meals at any point in the last 6 years
• are looked after by a local authority in England and Wales, or who left local authority care through adoption,
• a special guardianship order, a residence order or a child arrangements order

The ‘disadvantage gap index’ summarises the relative attainment gap between disadvantaged pupils and all other pupils. It is based on their scores in reading and maths at the end of key stage 2. A disadvantage gap score of 0 means there was no difference in achievement. A score of +10 means that every non-disadvantaged pupil did better than every disadvantaged pupil.

Things you need to know

Data was not collected during the 2 school years ending in July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Eligibility for free school meals (FSM) is used as an indicator of deprivation by the Department for Education. Children are eligible for FSM if their parents receive certain benefits.

Figures for the 2021 to 2022 school year are based on revised data. Figures for other years are based on final data.

Type of data

Administrative data

Full report

Read more in State of the Nation 2023 on GOV.UK.

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Download the data

Download full dataset (CSV, 117KB)

This file contains the following variables:

• Indicator code
• Indicator name
• Area type
• Area code
• Area name
• Time period
• Socio-economic background
• Age
• Sex
• Category type
• Category
• Value
• Lower confidence interval
• Upper confidence interval
• Standard error
• Unit
• Value note

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