Romanian in England's classroomsRomanian in classroomsENRO
Map of England's council areas with one dot for every ten pupils whose first language is Romanian.

Loading the map…

  1. England's school census, 2012 to 2023

    Romanian in England’s classrooms

    Each dot is ten pupils whose first language, as their school was told, is Romanian: 94,000 in England’s state-funded schools in January 2023. In 2012 there were about 8,100.

    By then it was the fifth most common first language in England’s classrooms after English, and the most common after English in seven council areas.

    Find your councilScroll to watch it grow

  2. January 2012

    In 2012, mostly a London story#

    The Department for Education’s table gives 8,145 pupils aged five and over with Romanian as their first language (three totals, each rounded to five). More than half, 55%, were in London schools, most of them in the boroughs of the north-west and east: Harrow, Brent, Newham, Waltham Forest, Barnet.

    In no council area was Romanian the first or even the second language after English. In Harrow, where it was most common, it came seventh.

  3. January 2021

    Nine years later, far beyond London#

    In January 2021 there were 77,167. London’s share had fallen to 35%: numbers grew faster in Northamptonshire, Hertfordshire, Essex, Kent, Birmingham, Coventry and Leeds.

    Romanian had become the most common language after English in Harrow, Havering and Thurrock (ringed), and the second in 33 more council areas.

    The two years are not counted alike: the 2012 table left out pupils under five, so part of the rise is reception classes being counted.

  4. January 2023, the latest table for every council

    94,000pupils with Romanian as first language

    Most common after English in seven council areas#

    Essex, Halton, Harrow, Havering, Hertfordshire, Thurrock and West Northamptonshire, and second in 28 more. 32% of these pupils were in London.

    In Harrow they were 4,355, one pupil in 9.

  5. England, 2015/16 to 2024/25

    Fifth in 2023, just ahead of Arabic#

    Among first languages other than English, Romanian was tenth in 2015/16 and passed Portuguese and Tamil in 2016/17. In 2017/18, the year the count widened to pupils of every age, it moved past Gujarati and Somali.

    The complete tables for every council put it sixth in January 2021, behind Arabic (83,579), and fifth in January 2023, 1,911 ahead of Arabic. Urdu, Polish, Panjabi and Bengali (107,784) stayed ahead.

    For the other years the department’s table leaves out every variant code that ever had 1,000 pupils or fewer, among them Romanian (Moldova) and several kinds of Arabic. On the codes it prints, Romanian (99,859) was 1,599 ahead of Arabic in 2024/25: too close to call.

  6. Census 2021 and the school census

    Second in the census, sixth in class#

    At the 2021 census, 465,926 residents of England aged three and over gave Romanian as their main language: more than any language except English and Polish. That January, Romanian was the sixth most common first language in England’s schools.

    For every 1,000 residents with Romanian as main language there were 166 pupils with Romanian as first language. For Polish the figure was 249, for Urdu 596. The community is recent: the census counted 78,192 residents of England born in Romania in 2011, and 530,320 in 2021.

    Pupils (January 2021) per 1,000 residents with that main language (Census 2021), England
    Urdu596
    Bengali571
    Arabic428
    Polish249
    Portuguese202
    Romanian166

    The comparison is rough. “Main language” is a person’s first or preferred language; a pupil’s “first language” is the one they met in early childhood and still hear at home or around them. The tables do not say why the ratios differ.

  7. The rise is slowing

    Fewer babies, a gentler rise#

    On the codes the department prints, counted the same way each year, the number grew by 9,684 in 2022/23, 4,965 in 2023/24 and 2,748 in 2024/25.

    Births to mothers born in Romania, in England and Wales, peaked at 16,069 in 2019 and fell to 10,649 in 2025, 34% fewer. Children born in 2019 started reception, the first school year, in September 2023 or 2024. Not every child of a Romanian mother is recorded with Romanian as first language, so births do not predict classroom numbers.

    Births to mothers born in Romania, England and Wales (ONS)
    05,00010,00015,0002008201420192025

    Wales, which has already published 2025/26, counted 1,475 pupils aged five and over with Romanian as first language, against 1,465 a year earlier (both rounded to five).

  8. January 2025, estimated

    Where the count stands now#

    The latest table of every council by language is for January 2023. The last frame scales each council’s count by the national rise to January 2025 (8.4%); the hollow marks are that estimate.

    Tested the same way from 2021 to 2023, on 120 council areas with at least 100 such pupils, the rule missed by a median 8%, and by more than 20% in one area in ten. Keeping the 2021 count would have missed by 21%.

    The misses are not random: 23 of 26 London boroughs grew less than the rule said, and towns in the North and the Midlands grew more. Numbers were still growing faster outside London.

  9. Reading the map

    What the dots are not#

    A dot is not a child’s home or school. Each council’s dots are spread across its districts in proportion to the Romanian speakers living there in 2021, then placed at random.

    “First language” is what the school was told, usually by a parent. It says nothing of how well a child speaks English or of nationality, and families from Moldova may be recorded under either Romanian code.

    A count for a named language misses pupils recorded only as speaking a language “other than English”: 86,036 pupils across England in 2024/25.

  10. Your council#

    Type a council area or tap the map. Figures are for state-funded schools; where fewer than three pupils are counted, the number is not shown.

The rest of the United Kingdom

Scotland records each pupil’s main home language: in its publicly funded schools, 153 pupils had Romanian in 2009 (a year in which some pupils were counted twice) and 2,676 in 2025. Wales counted 150 pupils aged five and over with Romanian as first language in 2011/12 and 1,475 in 2025/26 (rounded to five). Northern Ireland is not included here.

Every council area

Pupils in state-funded schools with Romanian as first language (the three census codes together). 2012 counts pupils aged five and over; 2021 and 2023 count all ages. The 2025 figure is the estimate described above. “–” means no figure; “<3” fewer than three pupils; “≥” a total that includes a code hidden by the department; “x” a total that cannot be worked out. Ranks count languages other than English; “=” marks a tie.
Council area2012202120232025 (est.)Rank 2023
Harrow≥ 5804,0364,3554,7201
Hertfordshire2393,0963,7244,0361
Birmingham2653,2103,4513,7407
West Northamptonshire293*3,749*3,2343,5051
Newham5132,6752,9093,1523
Essex≥ 1011,8912,5272,7391
Barking and Dagenham1762,1422,4172,6193
Brent5212,2312,3992,6004
Barnet≥ 4142,0652,2812,4722
Redbridge≥ 2332,1032,2642,4544
Coventry2181,5962,0352,2052
Kent≥ 921,4311,8922,0502
Leeds491,5451,8822,0403
Havering571,2421,7291,8741
Waltham Forest≥ 4641,6091,7231,8672
North Northamptonshire293*3,749*1,7221,8662
Luton601,3251,7131,8563
Suffolk521,0661,3581,4722
Thurrock349551,3141,4241
Enfield≥ 2531,1571,1811,2807
Hillingdon≥ 1001,0381,1741,2728
Warwickshire337459961,0792
Doncaster≥ 86549831,0652
Greenwich≥ 1308429821,0642
Surrey1108469651,0465

How this was counted

England’s school census asks, each January, for every pupil’s first language. The department publishes only whether it is English or not; the counts for single languages come from tables released on request: a national series for 2015/16 to 2024/25 attached to a parliamentary answer (10 October 2025), tables for every council area in January 2021 and January 2023 released under the Freedom of Information Act, and a 2012 table for every council area kept by NALDIC, the subject association for teachers of English as an additional language.

“Romanian” here is the sum of the census codes Romanian, Romanian (Romania) and Romanian (Moldova). Every language is counted the same way before ranking. The national series leaves out every code that had 1,000 pupils or fewer in any year: Romanian (Moldova), with 1,553 pupils in January 2021 and 1,854 in January 2023, and small variants of other languages, such as three kinds of Arabic. Its ranks are therefore approximate; the council tables include every code.

The series has two breaks. Before 2017/18 the department counted the first language only for pupils of compulsory school age; from 2017/18, for all pupils, so the total jumps by 1.1 million and ranks that change that year may reflect the wider count. The 2012 council table counts pupils aged five and over in state-funded primary and secondary schools and in special schools (maintained and non-maintained, not hospital schools); its national totals are rounded to five.

The 2025 estimate multiplies each council area’s January 2023 count by the national rise in the two printed Romanian codes from 2022/23 to 2024/25. Its range comes from the same rule’s misses from 2021 to 2023, leaving out the smallest and largest tenth. Councils with fewer than 100 such pupils get no estimate.

Council areas follow the January 2023 tables. Northamptonshire was split in April 2021, so its 2012 and 2021 figures are for the whole county; on the map they are shared between the two halves in proportion to 2023. In 2012, Bournemouth and Poole are shown with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole; Christchurch was then part of Dorset, so neither area matches its later boundary exactly.

Counts of one or two pupils are not shown, as in the department’s own 2012 table. Where a hidden code leaves a total uncertain, it is shown as “at least” or not at all.

Sources

  • Department for Education, number of pupils by first language spoken, academic years 2015/16 to 2024/25, attached to the answer to written question 70939, 10 October 2025. Open Parliament Licence.
  • Department for Education, first language of pupils by local authority, January 2021 (FOI2021-0045631) and January 2023 (FOI2023_0021927), released on WhatDoTheyKnow (2021, 2023). Used for non-commercial research and reporting, as the department’s letters allow.
  • Department for Education, pupils’ first language by local authority, January 2012, and national tables for January 2008 and 2011, kept by NALDIC.
  • Department for Education, English proficiency of pupils with English as an additional language, 2020: 52,124 pupils with Romanian as first language in spring 2018, reception and above, in its analysis of English proficiency. OGL v3.
  • Office for National Statistics, Census 2021, TS024 Main language (detailed), by county and unitary authority and by district; Census 2011 QS203EW and Census 2021 TS012, country of birth. OGL v3.
  • Office for National Statistics, births by parents’ country of birth, England and Wales, editions 2010–2025 (mothers born in Romania), as compiled for Romanian names in England and Wales. OGL v3.
  • Scottish Government, Pupil census supplementary statistics, 2009–2025. Welsh Government, pupils in maintained schools aged 5 and over by first language. OGL v3.
  • Office for National Statistics, Counties and Unitary Authorities and Local Authority Districts (December 2023) boundaries, generalised. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2023.

Elsewhere on the site