Primary School Survey 2026
Part of Religion in Ireland.
Over 90% of Irish primary schools are denominational, yet recent survey data (June 2026) shows substantial and widespread parental demand for multi-denominational education. The maps and graphs below explore that gap, school by school and county by county, with a particular focus on how the preferences of parents differ from those of school staff and boards of management.
The data comes from the Department of Education and Youth’s 2025–2026 Primary School Survey and its results summary report. The results for staff and boards of management are not in the spreadsheet the Department publishes, only in the summary report. The code is on GitHub. The figures are interactive.
There is an unmet demand for multi-denominational primary schools in Ireland
Figure 1. Each primary school’s current ethos compared with the ethos its parents said they prefer. Hover over or tap a school for its survey results. Code: make_maps.py. Open full screen.
Parents want multi-denominational education more than staff and boards of management
Figure 2. Percentage of households (with children in school, and with children not yet in school), and of staff and boards of management, who prefer multi-denominational education, in each county. Use the buttons to switch between household groups. Code: make_maps.py. Open full screen.
The school staff and board of management survey was open to primary school staff and members of boards of management nationally. The target population was 84,285 staff and board members. A total of 32,999 responses were submitted, and 32,901 valid responses were kept after validation. That is a validated response rate of 39.0% of the eligible population. (Source: results summary report, section 4.1, p. 25.)
There is a mismatch between the schools parents want for their children and the schools available to them
Figure 3. Stated ethos preference among households with a child not yet in school (n = 56,227), grouped by the type of school they intend to use. Each bar is 100% of the households intending that school type, split by whether they prefer a multi-denominational (green) or denominational (grey) ethos. This isolates demand for change: households intending a denominational school but preferring a multi-denominational one represent unmet demand, while households intending and preferring the same type represent confirmed preference. Percentages are recomputed from raw counts reported in the source, and the base (56,227) can’t be independently checked against the published survey spreadsheet. Source: Department of Education and Youth, Primary School Survey results summary report (June 2026), section 3.1.2, p. 14. Code: make_charts.py.