Registered school statistics


There were 2277 registered schools in Victoria at 30 June 2020.

Registered schools by type

All Victorian schools must be registered with us as as either co-educational or single sex, and as one or more of the following types of school:

  • primary
  • secondary
  • specific purpose (for schools that provide an alternative educational program or educational focus)
  • specialist (for schools that cater mainly for students with disabilities or with social, emotional or behavioural difficulties).

Note: the Department of Education's census date for registered schools is in February. The VRQA's census date is in June.

Chart 1: Registered schools by type

Donut chart showing that most registered schools are primary schools.

About 69% of Victorian schools are primary schools. Just over 25% are secondary or primary–secondary schools, and 6% are specialist or specific purpose schools.

Two new types of school were registered in 2020 – primary and secondary and specialist schools.

The vast majority (97%) of schools are co-educational.

Registered schools by sector

Chart 2: Registered schools by sector

Pie chart showing that most registered schools are goverment schools

Among registered schools, over two thirds are government schools and around one fifth are Catholic schools. Nearly 10% of schools are independent.

Registered schools by type and sector

Chart 3: Registered schools by type and sector

Most primary schools and secondary schools in the state are government or Catholic schools. Primary schools deliver Prep–Foundation and Years 1–6. Secondary schools deliver Years 7–12, and may also register to provide senior secondary education – the Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE), Victorian Certificate of Applied Learning (VCAL), or International Baccalaureate Diploma (IB) – to students in Years 11 and 12.

The majority of primary-secondary schools are independent schools. These schools may take children from Prep–Foundation to Year 12, from middle school to Year 12, or from primary school to early high school.

Number of schools by location and type

Overall, 59% of schools (1338) are located in the Greater Melbourne area and 41% in rural and regional Victoria (939).

Around 75% of Victoria's population lives in Greater Melbourne, while around 25% lives in regional and rural areas. This means there is a relatively high proportion of schools (particularly primary schools) in rural and regional areas, including around a third of the state's specialist and specific purpose schools.

Chart 4: Schools by location and type

Two donut charts and a table comparing the types of schools in greater Melbourne with those in regional Victoria. They show that a higher percentage of schools in regional victoria are primary schools, while greater Melbourne has higher percentages of secondary, primary-secondary and specialist or specific purpose schools.

Registered schools – trend

The number of registered schools has climbed steadily in recent years. According to the February census, the number of full-time equivalent enrolments has grown by 156,000 since 2010 to a total of 1,009,000 in 2020.

Chart 5: Full-time equivalent enrolments in Victorian schools

Area graph showing the increase to FTE enrolments in Victoria's government, Catholic and independent schools since 2010. More than two thirds of the increase has been in Government schools.

Chart 6: Registered schools – total by sector

Stacked bar charts for each year since 2016. They show that in 2020 there were 21 more government schools, 5 more Catholic schools and 8 more independent schools registered in Victoria compared to 2016.

New schools – trend

The VRQA registered 78 new schools in the last 5 years.

Most new government and Catholic schools are located in Melbourne's outer suburbs, where population growth is strong and there is demand for new housing, infrastructure and community services.

Chart 7: New schools by sector

Stacked bar chart showing that the majority of schools registered in the last five financial years were Government schools. Most new independent schools registered in that period were registered in 2015/16 or 2016/17.

For previous years' school statistics, see: