Release notes

The planning-areas page has two tabs, Pupils and change and Parent survey, in place of a small switch. The Parent survey tab leads with Ireland's figures, then the 65 areas with no all-Irish school and the 40 with no multi-denominational school where many parents of children not yet at school would prefer one, then every area for one question at a time, sorted by how far preference runs ahead of the places there now. Fixes: change bars over 20 years no longer fill up at 20% for counties and planning areas; a school still adding classes at the start of a window shows when it opened instead of a percentage in tables, Find schools and downloads (Scoil Bríd, Naas, showed +1,076.9% since 2005/06); Find schools' County and Patron list only those with schools in the search, and the Bishop of Kerry is one patron, not two; grouped map pins show their schools' colours; the list view's school column stays in place as its table scrolls; and the totals band no longer runs off the page when pins are coloured. Page addresses are unchanged.

Every table of counties, planning areas and schools now shows the change in pupils since 2005/06 beside the change since 2015/16, and both sort; the 10-year column still switches to 5 years. School pages add the change over 20 years and the school's classes and average class size in 2015/16 and now. Classes have got smaller since the staffing schedule went from 28 to 23 pupils per class teacher, so a fall in pupils doesn't necessarily mean fewer children want a place: county, planning-area and Irish-medium pages now give their schools' average class size then and now and how many of the schools that fell kept or added classes, and known data issues explains. Find schools has County and a new Patron filter in its search bar, so a search near a place can be narrowed to a county or a diocese, and its list adds a 20-year column. Page addresses are unchanged.

Added the Department of Education and Youth's Primary School Survey, which asked parents in late 2025 whether they would prefer their school to be co-educational or single-sex, to have a denominational or multi-denominational patron, and to teach through Irish or English. Every school and special school page has a Parent survey section with its parents' answers, for children at the school and, where the Department published them, children not yet at school, with the margin of error and a comparison with the planning area and Ireland. Planning-area pages show the Department's figures for the whole area beside what its schools offer now, and each school's parents; county, local-authority, patron and Irish-medium pages add up their schools' parents, and county pages show each planning area. The Irish-medium page compares parents' preference for Irish with places in all-Irish schools. The Planning areas page has a Parent survey view comparing all 314 areas, with filters for areas that have no all-Irish or multi-denominational school but many parents who would prefer one. Find schools filters and sorts by the survey, its map can colour schools by parents' preference, and its CSV download has the survey figures. Every section links to the Department's own results. These are preferences, not applications; known data issues explains the figures. Page addresses are unchanged.

Added special schools. Each of the 150 special schools now has its own page: its pupils, girls and boys back to 1993/94 where the Department's lists allow, the teaching posts and special needs assistants (SNAs) the National Council for Special Education allocates, the need the NCSE lists it as set up for, the nearest other special schools, and the mainstream schools within 10 km that have special classes. A new Special schools page shows pupils in special schools since 2011/12, every county, the newest schools and a CSV download. County and planning-area pages show their special schools and the special classes in their mainstream schools, with next year's new classes. Find schools has a Special school option under School type, and special schools come up in search. Special schools aren't counted in any mainstream total, so existing figures are unchanged. Page addresses are unchanged.

Added teachers across the site. Every school page has a Teachers section: its class teachers (one for each mainstream class), a principal who doesn't teach a class, special education and special class teachers, and its special needs assistants, with a chart back to 2006/07 and the NCSE's allocations for next year. Up to 2015/16 the figures are the Department of Education's own count of every teacher; from 2019/20 they are our estimate from class sizes and the National Council for Special Education's allocations, which are now among the site's sources. County, planning-area, local-authority, patron and Irish-medium pages, and the Counties page for Ireland as a whole, show class teachers since 2006/07, teaching posts, schools that gained or lost a class teacher, and schools by number of class teachers. Find schools filters and sorts by class teachers, shows each school's change on last year, and totals class teachers for every search. Tables and CSV downloads have class teacher columns, and class sizes now include 2018/19. How the estimate works is under known data issues. Page addresses are unchanged.

School pages now have three links under About this school: Open in Google Maps, Inspection reports, which lists the school's reports on gov.ie, and Report a data issue, which opens an email with the school's name, roll number and page already filled in. Nothing is sent until you press Send. Schools that have closed and have no details on record now show these links too. A note under the details explains that each one is the latest the Department of Education has recorded, so some may be from an earlier year than the pupil numbers. Page addresses are unchanged.

Redesigned school pages, on phones and larger screens. Tabs under the school's name jump to each section and stay at the top as you scroll. The key figures sit together at the top, beside the pupils chart and its notable changes. On phones the class-by-year grid fits the screen, nearby schools become a list and the data table switches between totals and classes. Choosing a group of pupils now shows its numbers year by year, and each class-size figure charts itself when chosen. The tags under a school's name show its ethos and DEIS status, then only what sets it apart, such as special classes or teaching through Irish; school details are grouped into contact, school, and language and area. Charts across the site show fewer year labels on small screens so they don't overlap. Page addresses are unchanged.

Pages now describe themselves to search engines: each school page gives the school's address, phone and location, each breadcrumb trail is marked up, and school, county and planning-area pages describe their CSV downloads as datasets, crediting the Department of Education, so they can appear in Google Dataset Search. County pages have a new download of every school in the county (CSV). Links shared on WhatsApp, Facebook, X and elsewhere now show the page title, a description and a preview image. Page addresses are unchanged.

The site is now called School Numbers, to match its address, schoolnumbers.ie, and has an icon for browser tabs, bookmarks and search results. Page titles now say what each page shows: a school's title gives its town and its pupils in the latest year, and county, patron, local-authority and planning-area titles name the primary schools they cover. A sitemap lists every school, county, planning-area and Irish-medium page for search engines. Page addresses are unchanged.

Redesigned the homepage to show what the site can do. Search for a school, find schools near your location, or start from a ready-made search such as Gaelscoileanna or schools growing over 10 years. Cards preview a school's pupils by class, Find schools and its filters, the counties that grew and fell most over 10 years, and the largest planning areas, and the latest releases are listed. The national pupils chart is now larger and shades the last 10 years. The full county table has moved off the homepage; every county is still linked, and the Counties page has the table. Page addresses are unchanged.

Find schools now shows totals for every search, whether a circle around a place, a county or any mix of filters: pupils, junior infants, pupils in schools teaching all subjects through Irish, and how many schools grew, held steady or fell over 10 years, with the combined change for the schools open in both years. Each count links to those schools. Schools still filling their classes in 2015/16 now count as newer schools, as on county and planning-area pages. Each school's card on the map also links to a satellite view and Street View on Google Maps. The page has a new layout: the search, quick filters and totals run across the top, so the list and map have more room, all filters open in a wider panel, and on phones the map and the list are separate views.

Added change over 10 years. Every school page shows the school's change in pupils since 2015/16, or when a new school opened, with its highest year on record, and its chart shades the last 10 years. County, planning-area and Irish-medium pages show how many of their schools grew, held steady or fell, with the five that grew and fell most where 15 or more schools can be ranked, and the Counties page shows this for every county. Every change column in the site's tables can switch between 5, 10 and 20 years, and starts on 10, so counties, planning areas and the homepage now compare with 2015/16 instead of 2020/21 or 2005/06. Find schools sorts and filters by change over 10 years, where growing or falling means 10% or more; existing links that filter by change now use 10 years.

Added trends for school planning areas. Every planning area now shows pupils, schools, average school size and average class size from 1975/76, junior infants from 2020/21, girls and boys, and pupils in Irish-medium schools, with each school's change since 2005/06 and CSV downloads. A new Planning areas page compares all 314 areas, and each area has its own page across county lines. Planning areas are only recorded from 2023/24, so earlier years leave out schools that closed before then; each page explains this, and it is listed under known data issues.

Added Find schools, with a map and advanced search. Search for schools near a town, townland, Eircode, school or your own location, within 2 to 25 km, and see them on a map or in a sortable list. Filter by county, boys, girls or mixed, special classes, ethos, teaching language, Gaeltacht, number of pupils, change since 2020/21, average class size, DEIS and island schools, with a count beside every option showing how many schools it would return. Searches can be shared as a link or downloaded as CSV. Every school page now also lists its six nearest schools on a small map.

Redesigned every page with a clearer layout that follows your device's light or dark setting. Search now finds schools by name, town or roll number, including schools that have closed, and school pages add a class-by-year grid and a CSV download. County trends now include schools that have since closed, so counties add up to the national total. 1974/75 is left out of national, county and Irish-medium group totals because that year's workbook is missing five counties, and school highlights only compare consecutive years. Page addresses are unchanged.

Updated school details to use the latest available Department information, retaining earlier values when newer records are blank. This corrects outdated Irish-medium classifications and refreshes names, contact details and other school information.

Replaced the provisional 2025/26 enrolment workbook with final mainstream school data, including by-standard class breakdowns and updated national, county, Irish-medium, and school trends.

Added verified mainstream class-size insights from 2006/07 to 2025/26, shown separately from enrolment-by-standard data on the homepage, school pages, county pages, and Irish-medium pages with clear source limitation notes.

Added an Irish-medium provision explorer with national aggregates by Irish classification and Gaeltacht status, including drill-down school lists and trend charts for each group.

Extended national, county, and school trend charts with historical enrolment data back to 1974 where available; added school address metadata, a known data issues page, clearer hover-only chart labels, shorter year ticks, and dotted gap indicators for missing 1983/84-1992/93 source data.

Redesigned homepage and geography navigation with county-first exploration, plus stacked national and county trend charts for total enrolment, total schools, and average school size.

School pages now load much faster, especially when viewing a specific school.

Added provisional 2025/26 enrolment data, later superseded by final Department of Education figures.

Added 2024/25 data to the tool.

Published to web.

First working version of the site.