Apparent retention

Key Facts

• Apparent retention rates estimate the progression of a cohort of students through school over time.

• In 2025: 

• The national apparent retention rate from Year 10 to Year 12 was 81.5%, an increase of 1.6 percentage points from 2024.  
• The apparent retention rate from Year 10 to Year 12 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students increased by 2.7 percentage points, from 57.0% in 2024 to 59.7%.
• The gap between Year 10 to Year 12 apparent retention rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students compared to non-Indigenous students was 23.2 percentage points, the same as it was in 2015. 

Notes and caveats

• Caution should be taken when interpreting apparent retention rates, particularly the sector-specific rates given the substantial movement of students across sectors.
• Data is drawn from the National Schools Statistics Collection (NSSC) collected in August each year and published in ABS, Schools, Australia. The ABS notes that relatively small changes in student numbers can create large movements in the apparent retention rates when calculated for small populations.
• The ABS publishes both capped apparent retention rates, which are capped at 100 per cent, and uncapped apparent retention rates. This report publishes uncapped rates.
• It is not currently possible to calculate actual retention rates. The apparent retention data should be interpreted with caution, as ‘apparent retention’ may not reflect actual student retention. Several factors can distort these rates:
  • International immigration: Differences in overseas student arrivals—including short‑term enrolments in Years 11 and 12—can inflate apparent retention where these students are concentrated. In 2020 and 2021, COVID‑19 border closures reduced immigration, particularly full fee‑paying overseas students, affecting both the numerator and denominator in those years.
  • Interstate mobility: State and territory rates may be inflated or reduced when students move between jurisdictions for senior schooling.
  • Movement between sectors: Sector‑specific rates cannot distinguish between students who remain in a sector and those who transfer elsewhere to complete senior secondary schooling.
  • Age‑based participation requirements: Historical differences in enrolment practices mean that the age at which students are required to stay in school varies across states and territories, influencing whether most students remain to Year 11 or Year 12.
  • Enrolment policies: Different age or year-level structures between states and territories, and age requirements for leaving school may contribute to differences in apparent retention rates. Jurisdictions with younger cohorts may record higher Year 10–12 apparent retention because a larger share of students must stay until Year 12. Economic conditions, youth employment, and the availability of recognised training or employment pathways can also raise or lower rates independently of schooling.
  • Employment and training opportunities: The availability of approved alternatives to senior schooling (in particular Vocational Education and Training), which may vary across states and territories, may impact apparent retention rates. States with more alternative opportunities for 16‑ and 17‑year‑olds may show lower apparent retention to Year 12.
  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student differences: Variations between jurisdictions may reflect small population sizes; changes over time in the proportion of students identifying as Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander; interstate movement (including scholarships); different age profiles relative to participation requirements; access to training and employment alternatives; and the geographic distribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. 
  • Student progress: students progressing faster or slower than the expected rate of one school year per calendar year (e.g. students changing between full-time or part-time study, repeating a year or accelerating) may impact apparent retention rates.
• In 2020 and 2021, restrictions due to COVID-19 may have impacted on NSSC enrolment data. However, students who were learning remotely, or whose schooling was temporarily disrupted due to COVID-19 at the time of the collection were included in the count. Overall, it is estimated that the impacts of COVID-19 on the data were minor. For further details see Schools, Australia 2020 and 2021.
• In 2020 and 2021 border closures due to COVID-19 impacted on school enrolments due to reduced immigration and, in particular, to falls in the numbers of full fee-paying overseas students (FFPOS). This may have impacted the numerator and/or the denominator for this measure in 2020 and 2021. For further details see Schools Australia 2020 and 2021.
• Until 2018, Key Performance Measure 1(e) was defined as: Apparent retention rates from Year 10 to Year 12 (Indigenous school students compared to non-Indigenous school students). From 2019, Key Performance Measure 1(e) is defined as: Apparent retention rate from Year 10 to Year 12. Indigenous and non-Indigenous apparent retention rates continue to be reported as a disaggregation of the KPM.
• The apparent retention rate is an indicative measure of the number of full-time school students in a designated year level of schooling as a percentage of their respective cohort group in a base year. For example, the apparent retention rate for Year 10 – Year 12, 2021, is the number of students in Year 12 2021 as a percentage of the number of students in that cohort in Year 10 in 2019 (the base year), two years earlier. Part-time and ungraded students are not included in calculations of apparent retention rates.
• Apparent retention rates for Year 7/8 - Year 9, Year 7/8 - Year 10, Year 7/8 - Year 11 and Year 7/8 - Year 12 measure the apparent retention rate from the first year of secondary schooling (Year 7 or Year 8, depending on jurisdiction) to a later year of schooling. Up to and including 2016, the base year for these calculations was Year 8 for Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia and Year 7 for other states and territories.
• In 2015, the structure of schooling in Queensland and Western Australia changed, with Year 7 becoming the first year of secondary schooling, whereas previously it was Year 8. For those apparent retention rates using the first year of secondary education as the base year, this will progressively impact both state specific rates for Queensland and Western Australia, and national rates calculated from 2017 onwards. While some non-government schools transitioned in 2019, and three government schools transitioned in 2020 to a new structure of Year 7 being the start of high school, Year 8 remained as the base cohort for calculating rates for students commencing secondary school in South Australia.
• Until 2019 in South Australia (SA), primary education comprised Foundation (pre-Year 1) followed by Years 1-7. Secondary education consisted of Years 8-12. In 2019, Year 7 was moved from a primary school year to a secondary school year in some South Australian non-government schools. In 2020, three government schools also moved Year 7 to become the first year of secondary schooling. In 2022, all remaining South Australian government and non-government schools completed the transition to Year 7 as the starting school grade of secondary schooling. This meant that 2022 is the first year South Australian schools across all affiliations had Year 7 as their starting secondary school grade.
• From 2020, support students in New South Wales Government mainstream schools are recorded against their grade of enrolment, to be more aligned with national counting rules. Only students in Schools for Specific Purposes (SSP) are now recorded as ungraded. Care should be taken when comparing with previous years as enrolments by grades will be higher than previously due to the revised methodology.
• In Schools, Australia, and in this publication, Catholic non-systemic schools are counted as Catholic rather than as independent.
• See Glossary for definition of school sector and Indigenous status and for further information on apparent retention rates and the NSSC.

Source: ABS, Schools, Australia