More than one in ten children in Brighton and Hove attends an independent school.
The figure was revealed in a written answer to a parliamentary question by Nick Gibb, the Schools Minister and Conservative MP for Bognor Regis and Littlehampton.
In a reply to Graham Brady, the Tory MP for Altrincham and Sale West, Mr Gibb said that 28,738 children attend school in Brighton and Hove.
Of those, 2,904 – or 10.1 per cent – attend an independent school. Nationally, the proportion is 6.5 per cent.
He acknowledged that some of those 2,900 children may well come from outside the area covered by Brighton and Hove City Council.
The main independent schools in the city are Roedean, Brighton College and Brighton and Hove High School.
Cardinal Newman, a Catholic school in the state sector, like the main independent schools, attracts some of its pupils from outside Brighton and Hove.
The vast majority of pupils attending state schools in Brighton and Hove though come from the area.
