Pupils in primary education: 1.36 million in 2025/26, 10% less than in 1996/97

Pupils in primary education, 1996/97 – 2025/26, in million. The highest point was 2008/09 (1.55).

Source: DUO, Historische leerlingentellingen PO gemeente per jaar · opgehaald 25 oktober 2026 · selection: onderwijssoort BO; peildatum 1 oktoberOpen the table Single block

These figures come from

DUO open education data

Dienst Uitvoering Onderwijs

Every school and programme with its address, and per school location the number of pupils, school advice, end-of-primary test scores, exam results and forecasts. From primary school to university. DUO publishes it as downloads and as an API (56 datasets with 274 tables in the datastore on 16 October 2026).

This block is an example of what you can show with this source. Open the source itself to look further, pick other figures or use the data in your own work.

Open the table at DUO The API call behind this block All about this source

Access: Open
Licence: CC BY (volgens de catalogus van DUO)
Table: 947ecf4a-3744-4f59-ad98-6ce4107dafa2
Latest figure: 2025/26
Fetched: 25 October 2026

Fetch exactly these figures yourself

curl "https://onderwijsdata.duo.nl/api/3/action/datastore_search?resource_id=947ecf4a-3744-4f59-ad98-6ce4107dafa2&filters=%7B%22SOORT_VESTIGING%22%3A%22BO%22%7D&fields=SCHOOLJAAR%2CAANTAL_LEERLINGEN&limit=32000"

Pupils in primary education: 1.36 million in 2025/26, 10% less than in 1996/97

More in this topic

4TU.ResearchData DOIs per publication year, counted in DataCite (prefix 10.4121): 3,047 DOIs in 2025, 9.1 times as much as in 2013

Pupils and students by type of education: primary education is the largest part, 38% in 2025/'26

People aged 15 to 75 by education level: high (higher education) is the largest part, 38% in 2025

Senior general secondary (havo) graduates: 41.6 thousand per year in 2024/'25, 42% more than in 1972/'73

Students at universities of applied sciences (hbo): 440 thousand in 2025/'26, 14 times as much as in 1950/'51

Highly educated people (higher education degree): 46.7 percent of people aged 25 to 34 in 2024, 7.5 percentage points higher than in 2013