Catholic Education’s scale is essential context for government funding and policy settings because we are an integral part of Australia’s schooling system. It is a nationwide network educating around one in five students across approximately 1,750 schools and employing more than 115,000 staff. This reach means Commonwealth and State/Territory decisions on funding models, indexation, accountability, workforce initiatives and needs-based loadings have material impacts on a large share of Australian families and communities, including significant numbers in regional, rural and remote areas. Understanding our sector’s size and distribution helps explain why stable, transparent and equitable policy and funding arrangements are central to system-wide planning, affordability, and the delivery of education outcomes at scale.
Catholic Education is a significant enterprise, educating 830,000 students across 1,750 mostly low-fee schools nationwide, comprising one in five Australian school students. The sector employs more than 115,000 staff, including education professionals and teachers, and plays a major role in regional and metropolitan communities alike.
Catholic schools have a 200-year history serving alongside the government sector and catering to some of the most disadvantaged areas in Australia.
Catholic schools represent the largest non-government schooling system, accounting for roughly 60% of all students in the non-government sector. They are widely distributed, with around 40% of Catholic schools located in regional, rural and remote areas, highlighting their national reach beyond major cities.
The sector also operates over 700 early childhood education and care services including pre-school/kinder, long daycare, out of school hours (OSHC) and family daycare.
In the last decade (2015-2025) Catholic education has grown by 8.6 per cent inclusive of:
- 830,00 students across 1,750 schools
- 56% of students from Catholic backgrounds and 44% from non-Catholic backgrounds
- 43% of our students come from low socio-educational backgrounds (for context, the government serves 57%)
- 24% of students supported with disability
- 60% growth in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student enrolment over the last decade