Government Finance Statistics, Education, Australia

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Statistics about government education revenues and expenses across jurisdictions and levels of government in Australia

Reference period

2019-20 financial year

Released

27/04/2021

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Key statistics

In the year 2019-20 across all levels of government:

Total government education expenses was $114.1 billion in 2019-20
Government school education expenses was $58.6 billion in 2019-20
Government tertiary education (Universities and TAFE) expenses was $41.5 billion in 2019-20

Main Features

COVID-19 drives revenue weakness and increased expenses in education

Weakness in education revenue reflects the decline in international arrivals due to COVID-19, and the resulting decline in overseas student revenue for universities.
Strength in education expenses reflect State Government increases through a range of public education policy measures for primary and secondary education, Commonwealth VET-FEE-HELP debt forgiveness, and monetary COVID-19 support payments for students.

Graph 1. Education Total Revenue & Expenses, percentage change
	Total Revenue (%)	Total Expenses (%)
2014-15	5.6	3.2
2015-16	6.5	3.1
2016-17	5.9	4.5
2017-18	12.4	4.5
2018-19	9.1	5.5
2019-20	-2.2	8.6

Graph 1. Education Total Revenue & Expenses, percentage change

["","Total Revenue","Total Expenses"]

[["2014-15","2015-16","2016-17","2017-18","2018-19","2019-20"],[[5.5999999999999996],[6.5],[5.9000000000000004],[12.4],[9.0999999999999996],[-2.2000000000000002]],[[3.2000000000000002],[3.1000000000000001],[4.5],[4.5],[5.5],[8.5999999999999996]]]

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Key Tables

Show all

Table 1. Operating expenses on education, all levels of government
	2018-19	2019-20	2018-19 to 2019-20	2018-19 to 2019-20
	School education	54 141	58 638	4 497	8.3
	Tertiary education	38 384	41 478	3 094	8.1
	Other education	12 604	14 030	1 426	11.3
Total education	105 129	114 146	9 017	8.6

Table 2. Education gross fixed capital formation, all levels of government
	2018-19	2019-20	2018-19 to 2019-20	2018-19 to 2019-20
	School education	3 517	4 321	804	22.9
	Tertiary education	4 467	5 088	621	13.9
	Other education	797	1 086	289	36.3
Total education	8 781	10 495	1 714	19.5

Table 3. Education sales of goods and services, all levels of government
	2018-19	2019-20	2018-19 to 2019-20	2018-19 to 2019-20
	School education	1 211	1 242	31	2.6
	Tertiary education	20 430	19 938	- 492	-2.4
	Other education	246	256	10	4.1
Total education	21 887	21 436	- 451	-2.1

Table 4. Education expenses by purpose and level of government
		2014-15	2015-16	2016-17	2017-18	2018-19	2019-20
School education
	Commonwealth Government	-	-	-	-	-	-
	State and local government	1 073	1 086	1 175	1 253	1 242	1 276
	Control n.f.d. (a)	-	-	-	-	-	-
	less Intra-sector transfers	6	5	6	30	31	33
Total all levels of government	1 067	1 080	1 169	1 223	1 211	1 242

Tertiary education
	Commonwealth Government	9	10	11	10	29	26
	State and local government	1 557	1 755	1 615	1 529	1 277	1 196
	Control n.f.d. (a)	14 186	15 046	16 237	17 617	19 383	18 963
	less Intra-sector transfers	230	229	251	256	259	247
Total all levels of government	15 522	16 582	17 612	18 900	20 430	19 938

Other education
	Commonwealth Government	32	31	17	9	9	42
	State and local government	64	60	67	115	243	227
	Control n.f.d. (a)	-	-	-	-	-	-
	less Intra-sector transfers	1	1	1	-	6	13
Total all levels of government	95	90	83	123	246	256

Analysis

COVID-19 impacts tertiary education through increased expenses

Education expenses were $114.1 billion, an increase of $9.0 billion from the 2018-19 estimate of $105.1 billion.

Key drivers in 2019-20 were:

Primary and secondary education grew significantly in the 2019-20 financial year driven by a range of public education policy measures. State investment in frontline services, including additional schools, teachers and addressing a backlog of repairs and maintenance saw unprecedented levels of expenditure in education for the 2019-20 financial year.
University education began weakening compared to historical growth in the later half of the 2019-20 year. This was driven by the impact of COVID-19 on international student numbers and the subsequent removal or scaling back of courses. The major impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on university education is yet to be seen and will have a more pronounced impact in the 2020-21 financial year due to universities making further decisions to scale back operations.
Growth in Vocational education and training was driven by expenses related to debt forgiveness for students affected by unacceptable conduct by VET providers during the VET-FEE-HELP scheme.
Growth in Apprenticeships, traineeships and other was driven by the wage subsidy policy announced in the COVID-19 First Economic Stimulus package.
Growth in Education n.e.c. was driven by additional monetary transfers to households in Coronavirus Supplement and Economic Support Payments for students.

Graph 2. Education operating expense, percentage change
	2019-20	5 year average (a)
Pre-primary education	3.7	8.3
Primary education	8.2	5.0
Secondary education	8.8	4.1
University education	4.2	6.0
Vocational education and training	23.5	0.2
Apprenticeships, traineeships, and other	12.7	0.6
Subsidiary services to education	1.8	4.3
Education n.e.c.	13.1	0.7

Graph 2. Education operating expense, percentage change

["","2019-20","5 year average (a)"]

[["Pre-primary education","Primary education","Secondary education","University education","Vocational education and training","Apprenticeships, traineeships, and other","Subsidiary services to education","Education n.e.c."],[[3.7000000000000002],[8.1999999999999993],[8.8000000000000007],[4.2000000000000002],[23.5],[12.699999999999999],[1.8],[13.1]],[[8.3000000000000007],[5],[4.0999999999999996],[6],[0.20000000000000001],[0.59999999999999998],[4.2999999999999998],[0.69999999999999996]]]

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(a) average annual movement for the 5 years preceding the current year

Education sales of goods and services fell sharply across a number of jurisdictions driven by COVID-19

Education sales of goods and services were $21.4 billion, a decrease of $0.5 billion from the 2018-19 estimate of $21.9 billion.

Key drivers in 2019-20 were:

Revenue from international students attending Australian universities drove the the largest drop in education revenue. This was driven by the impact of COVID-19 on international travel, limiting new and returning students ability to attend Australian universities through the second half of the 2019-20 financial year.
Universities with higher portions of international students saw the largest impacts due to reductions in international student revenue.

Graph 3. Education sales of goods and services, $m change
	2019-20	5 year average (a)
Commonwealth	-65	54
New South Wales	-175	460
Victoria	-90	420
Queensland	-100	170
South Australia	32	49
Western Australia	-15	37
Tasmania	-45	25
Northern Territory	12	2
Australian Capital Territory	-4	10

Graph 3. Education sales of goods and services, $m change

["","2019-20","5 year average (a)"]

[["Commonwealth","New South Wales","Victoria","Queensland","South Australia","Western Australia","Tasmania","Northern Territory","Australian Capital Territory"],[[-65],[-175],[-90],[-100],[32],[-15],[-45],[12],[-4]],[[54],[460],[420],[170],[49],[37],[25],[2],[10]]]

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(a) average annual movement for the 5 years preceding the current year

Related releases

Government Finance Statistics, Annual

Statistics about finances of the general government and public corporation sectors for the various levels of government in Australia.

The 2019-20 issue of Government Finance Statistics, Annual was published on 27 April 2021.

Previous catalogue number

This release previously used catalogue number cat. no. 5518.0.55.001.

Tables 1-19 Government Finance Statistics, Education, Australia

Data files

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Methodology

Government Finance Statistics, Education, Australia methodology, 2019-20 financial year

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