Irish primary school class sizes reach lowest level this century and here's why...

The average size of a primary school class in Ireland has reached its lowest level this century. 

The latest figures from the Department of Education reveal that the average size of a primary school class in the 2024/25 school year was 22.2 pupils. 

This represents a decrease of 0.3 on the previous year’s average. This reduction is believed to be the result of a decrease of 18,000 in the number of children entering primary education last year.

The figures reveal that Longford is the county with the smallest classes on average, with 20.5 pupils per class, whilst Kildare has the largest average classes with 23.8 children per class.

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Classes with more than 30 pupils are officially classified as overcrowded, and there were 790 schools nationwide with at least one such class.

There was just one class in the country with over 40 pupils - Ballynea NS in County Cork has one class of 42 pupils.

The average size of primary school classes in Ireland peaked (on record) in 1998, when the figure stood at 25.6. 

This year’s average of 22.2 pupils is the lowest such figure in the Department of Education’s Statistical Bulletin, which goes back to that same year.