Enrollment in Elementary and Junior High Schools Decreases by Over 30% in 18 Years

According to the latest statistics from Taiwan's Ministry of Education, the number of students in elementary and junior high schools has seen a substantial decrease. For the 2025 academic year, there are 1.165 million elementary school students and 605,000 junior high school students. This represents a significant drop of approximately 589,000 elementary students and 347,000 junior high students compared to the 2007 academic year, resulting in a reduction of about 36.5% and 33.6%, respectively, over an 18-year period. The number of junior high schools in the 2025 academic year is 736, an increase of one from the previous year, while elementary schools number 2607, a decrease of six. Over the past five academic years, elementary schools have decreased by 24, and junior high schools by one. High school enrollment for the 2025 academic year is 532,000, a decrease of 260,000 students from the 2015 academic year, a 32.8% reduction over 10 years. The number of high schools has decreased by 8 over the past five years, with public schools showing an increasing trend while private schools are declining. The statistics also indicate that in the past five years, the majority of junior high and elementary schools have 12 or fewer classes. For elementary schools, the proportion of schools with 12 or fewer classes decreased from 55.6% in 2020 to 55.2% in 2025. For junior high schools, this proportion increased from 37% to 37.8%. High school total classes have decreased by 19.1% over the past decade.