Three quarters of new junior infants aged five

Nearly three-quarters of children are starting school aged five — outnumbering four-year-olds nearly three-to-one.

The older profile of junior infant pupils represents a significant turnaround from the start of the last decade, when almost exactly even numbers of four and five-year-olds started school together.

The latest data on infant ages from the Department of Education show that 48,857, or 71%, of the 68,438 who began junior infants last autumn were aged five. A further 18,650 were four, representing 27%, with less than 950 aged six or seven.