School overcrowding and free schools

For each local authority in England, this interactive graphic shows the current surplus or shortage of school places, along with projections for 2014-2015 that show what would happen if local authorities were not to create additional school capacity.

These figures demonstrate how the need for new school buildings varies across the country. Part of the strain may be met by free schools, publicly-funded schools set up by private groups, so the map also shows how many free school groups are active in each authority area.

In November 2011, London councils were allocated £260m for new school buildings – more than half of the total extra funding made available for England – as part of an effort to resolve the extreme shortage of places within the capital’s state primary schools.