This would mean around 4.8 million pupils attending maintained primaries by 2020: a rise of 20% from 2011. The increase is due to an upturn in the birth rate, which has been rising since 2002 and is predicted to continue to do so until 2014. The government said it was using several methods to increase school places, including building new free schools and letting popular schools expand to meet parental demand.

Conversely, secondary school pupil numbers have been falling since 2004 and are likely to continue falling until 2015.

Click here for more detailed statistics. Download National Pupil Projections: Future Trends in Pupil Numbers from the DfE website.