National sickness absence statistics
| Teacher sickness absence statistics | 2015/16 | 2016/17 | 2017/18 | 2018/19 | 2020/21 |
| Percentage of teachers taking sickness absence | 54.5 | 54.8 | 54.4 | 54.1 | 45.0 |
| Days sick per teacher* | 4.1 | 4.1 | 4.0 | 4.1 | 3.9 |
| Days sick per teacher taking sickness absence* | 7.5 | 7.4 | 7.4 | 7.5 | 8.6 |
| Number of teachers taking sickness absence | 275,840 | 271,048 | 269,345 | 275,646 | 229,898 |
| Total days sickness absence taken | 2,062,487 | 2,005,371 | 2,001,033 | 2,070,491 | 1,971,300 |
The data is taken from the DfE's school workforce in England data, through the 'create your own table' tool. To see for yourself, select:
- Publication: select 'School workforce in England'
- Choose a subject: select 'Teacher absences'
- Choose locations: select 'England' (under 'national')
- Choose time period: select the years you're interested in from the drop-down menu
- Choose your filters: select all 5 filters
‘Days sick per teacher’ is the sickness absence rate averaged out across all teachers in service, irrespective of whether they took any sickness absence ‘Days sick per teacher taking sickness absence’ is the average number of days sick taken by those teachers who had at least 1 period of sickness