Single-sex schools are a longstanding feature of Australia’s education landscape and a valued choice for many parents. This paper provides analysis of enrolment trends and academic outcomes in single-sex schools. 

Key findings 

• On enrolment trends, Australia has around 304 single-sex schools educating over 284,000 students.
• Of these students, approximately 54% attend girls’ schools, 86% are in secondary education, and 85% are in non-government schools.
• Over the last five years, girls’ enrolments in single-sex schools have grown but boys’ school enrolments have remained steady.
• The share of all students in single-sex schools has declined slightly from 7.2% in 2018 to 7.0% in 2022, possibly in part due to some single-sex schools transitioning to co-ed.
• After accounting for socio-educational background and gender, single-sex schools tend to have slightly higher NAPLAN scores than co-ed schools, with a particularly high lead for boys’ schools in Numeracy.
• The results of analysis imply a modest academic advantage for single-sex schools, with the advantage generally greater for boys’ schools than girls’ schools.