Explore Education Statistics Public API

The CSV response will render its metadata in a human-readable format (instead of machine-readable IDs). The CSV is not subject to the same backward compatibility guarantees as the data set's JSON representation in other endpoints.

Get a data set version's summary details.

Lists the changes made by a data set version relative to the version prior to it.

Get the metadata about a data set. Use this to create data set queries.

Gets a specific data set’s summary details.

Get a specific publication's summary details.

List a data set’s versions. Only provides summary information of each version.

Lists summary details of all the data sets related to a publication.

Lists details about publications with data available for querying.

Query a data set using a GET request, returning the filtered results.

Note that there is a POST variant of this endpoint which provides a more complete set of querying functionality. The GET variant is only recommended for initial exploratory testing or simple queries that do not need advanced functionality.

Unlike the POST variant, this endpoint does not allow condition clauses (and, or, not) and consequently cannot express more complex queries. Use the POST variant instead for these types of queries.

Indicators

The indicators query parameter is required and at least one indicator must be specified.

Each indicator should be a string containing the indicator ID e.g. headcount, enrolments.

Filters

The filters query parameter is used to filter by other filter options (not locations, geographic levels or time periods).

Each filter should be a string containing the required filter option ID e.g. z4FQE, DcQeg.

Geographic levels

The geographicLevels query parameter is used to filter results by geographic level.

The geographic levels are specified as codes, and can be one of the following:

• EDA - English devolved area
• INST - Institution
• LA - Local authority
• LAD - Local authority district
• LEP - Local enterprise partnership
• LSIP - Local skills improvement plan area
• MCA - Mayoral combined authority
• MAT - MAT
• NAT - National
• OA - Opportunity area
• PA - Planning area
• PCON - Parliamentary constituency
• PROV - Provider
• REG - Regional
• RSC - RSC region
• SCH - School
• SPON - Sponsor
• WARD - Ward

Locations

The locations query parameter is used to filter results by location.

The locations should be strings formatted like {level}|{property}|{value} where:

• {level} is the location's level code (e.g. NAT, REG, LA)
• {property} is the name of the identifying property to match on (e.g. id, code, urn`)
• {value} is the value for the property to match

An ID or a code can be used to identify a location, with the following differences:

• IDs only match a single location
• Codes may match multiple locations

Whilst codes are generally unique to a single location, they can be used for multiple locations. This may match more results than you expect so it's recommended to use IDs where possible.

Examples

• LA|code|E08000019 matches any local authority with code E08000019
• REG|id|abcde matches any region with ID abcde
• SCH|urn|140821 matches any school with URN 140821

Time periods

The timePeriods query parameter is used to filter results by time period.

The time periods should be strings formatted like {period}|{code} where:

• period is the time period or range (e.g. 2020 or 2020/2021)
• code is the code identifying the time period type (e.g. AY, CY, M1, W20)

The period should be a single year like 2020, or a range like 2020/2021. Currently, only years (or year ranges) are supported.

Some time period types span two years e.g. financial year part 2 (P2), or may fall in a latter year e.g. academic year summer term (T3). For these types, a singular year period like 2020 is considered as 2020/2021.

For example, a period value of 2020 is applicable to the following time periods:

• 2020 calendar year
• 2020/2021 academic year
• 2020/2021 financial year part 2 (October to March)
• 2020/2021 academic year's summer term

If you wish to be more explicit, you may use a range for the period e.g. 2020/2021. However, a range cannot be used with time period types which only span a single year, for example, 2020/21 cannot be used with CY, M or W codes.

Examples

• 2020|AY is the 2020/21 academic year
• 2021|FY is the 2021/22 financial year
• 2020|T3 is the 2020/21 academic year's summer term
• 2020|P2 is the 2020/21 financial year part 2 (October to March)
• 2020|CY is the 2020 calendar year
• 2020|W32 is 2020 week 32
• 2020/2021|AY is the 2020/21 academic year
• 2021/2022|FY is the 2021/22 financial year

Sorts

The sorts query parameter is used to sort the results.

Sorts are applied in the order they are provided and should be strings formatted like {field}|{direction} where:

• field is the name of the field to sort e.g. time_period
• direction is the direction to sort in e.g. ascending (Asc) or descending (Desc)

The field can be one of the following:

• timePeriod to sort by time period
• geographicLevel to sort by the geographic level of the data
• location|{level} to sort by locations in a geographic level where {level} is the level code (e.g. REG, LA)
• A filter ID (e.g. characteristic, school_type) to sort by the options in that filter
• An indicator ID (e.g. sess_authorised, enrolments) to sort by the values in that indicator

Examples

• timePeriod|Desc sorts by time period in descending order
• geographicLevel|Asc sorts by geographic level in ascending order
• location|REG|Asc sorts by regions in ascending order

Query a data set using a POST request, returning the filtered results.

Note that for simpler queries or exploratory testing, there is also GET variant of this endpoint only handles a smaller subset of querying functionality. However, for most use-cases, this endpoint is recommended as it provides the complete set of functionality.

Unlike the GET endpoint, the POST endpoint allows condition criteria (and, or, not) and consequently can express more complex queries.