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Australians absolutely love putting their kids in a blazer and boater hat. Even amid the worst cost of living crisis in memory, and as people tighten their belts in many domains, private schooling remains sacrosanct in some family budgets. 

Many families are eating tinned beans but refusing to send their kids to the local state school. Data for schools in 2023 has been released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics and it shows that we are leaving the government system in droves.

As the next chart shows, enrolment in Catholic and independent schools is up compared to 2021 and 2022. 

The next chart shows when people go private.