Abstract
In this article, the authors investigate the relationship between the development of school statistics, especially in the area of primary education, and the development of the Spanish educational system in the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century. To do this, they first look at attempts to gather statistical information on education and to provide general figures on education in Spain that took place under the absolute monarchy during the eighteenth century and the first third of the nineteenth century. They then analyse in a little more detail the long journey undertaken by the new liberal regime between 1834 and 1850 — during which years the Spanish education system would be built — to know the educational situation in the country and have steady, regular, reliable school statistics. What can be considered the golden age of school statistics (1855–1885) followed, when this project was realised. Finally, they discuss the characteristics and evolution of occasional school statistics produced during the last years of the nineteenth century and the first third of the twentieth century.