The latest quarterly statistics from English UK show that demand across the UK English language teaching sector remained below 2025 levels during Q2 2026, although the overall structure of the market changed very little.
Based on returns from 115 English UK member centres, the Q2 snapshot provides an overview of student demand across the UK ELT sector between April and June, as providers moved towards the important summer season.
Agents, schools and other industry professionals can access the full snapshot here:
Download the English UK 2026 Q2 snapshot
Q2 2026 brought the expected seasonal increase in student volumes as the sector moved closer to the summer period. However, English UK’s figures show that, on a like for like basis, student weeks were 6% lower than during Q2 2025, with declines recorded in both the adult and junior sectors.
Participating English UK member centres delivered approximately 106,500 student weeks between April and June 2026. Adult student weeks fell by 5% compared with Q2 2025, while junior student weeks declined by 10%.
Despite the year on year reduction in volumes, the overall pattern of demand remained relatively consistent. Adult students accounted for 86% of all student weeks, while demand continued to be concentrated across a relatively small group of key source markets and UK destinations.
Saudi Arabia and Türkiye remained the two largest source markets overall, followed by Brazil, Japan and Italy.
Türkiye strengthened its position in both the overall and adult market rankings. Within the junior sector, meanwhile, English UK reported that demand became increasingly concentrated in Italy and Spain when compared with Q2 2025.
The top 10 source markets generated 71.4% of all student weeks during the quarter, a figure that remained virtually unchanged from Q1 2026. This suggests that a relatively small number of major sending markets continue to play a significant role in overall UK ELT demand.
The regional picture also remained familiar. London, the South and South East, and Northern England continued to be the three largest host regions, together accounting for approximately 76% of all student weeks recorded.
English UK’s Q2 findings suggest that current market pressures are affecting overall student volumes without significantly altering the underlying structure of demand.
For education agents working with UK providers, the continued concentration of students within established source markets is particularly noteworthy. While overall numbers may have softened, many of the same countries continue to dominate recruitment patterns, reinforcing the importance of established markets while also highlighting the potential value of diversification.
It is also important to note that Q2 does not yet capture the peak junior summer season. Figures from the following quarter should therefore provide a clearer indication of how the UK ELT market performed during one of its most important periods of the year.
The data comes from QUIC, English UK’s quarterly statistics scheme, which allows participating member centres to monitor changes in student demand and benchmark their performance against other providers and the wider sector.
The quarterly snapshot provides a high level overview of national trends, while full QUIC reports are available exclusively to participating centres and offer more detailed analysis covering areas such as source markets, age groups, course types and UK regions.
The scheme complements English UK’s annual student statistics, which provide a broader retrospective picture of performance across the UK English language teaching sector.
The Q2 2026 findings are based on data submitted by 115 English UK member centres representing 223 advertised teaching premises.
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