| dc.description.abstract | In 1982/83 the estimated total number of pupils and students in the Community continued to fall and at 58 million was more than 3 million below the peak in 1976/77. The demographic reasons for this drop were considered in Statistical Bulletin N°l-1984; suffice it to say now that the effect continued in 1982/83 with overall reductions in all Member States except in Ireland, where there was a small increase, and Greece, for which data are not yet available. A continuing trend of a similar nature can be expect-ed in the near future. As was found in the previous year, the fall in numbers is attributable to the de-clining numbers of the indigenous population of school age. In all countries able to report the total numbers, the number of foreign pupils and students continued to rise, except for a small fall in the United Kingdom. In Luxembourg the foreign proportion was almost 30 per cent. |
