More than one pupil in every 10 is absent from school each day, research released by the Ministry of Education shows.
The survey showed overall absence of 11 per cent, including a truancy rate of 3 per cent.
Among factors affecting absence and truancy rates were school type, ethnicity andthe socioeconomic communities from which students came.
Absences for boys and girls were similar but whether a school was co-educational or single sex was a significant factor in truancy.
Boys at co-educational schools had a higher overall absence rate than their counterparts in single sex schools.
Maori and Pacific Islands students had double the truancy rate of New Zealand European and Asian students, the report said.
"Reducing absence in these few schools that have exceptionally high rates of absence will have a substantial effect on the national absence rate," it added.
Absence rates at schools reported for the survey had ranged from 1 per cent to 37 per cent.
The overall rate in the survey, which covered 2004, was up by 2 per cent from 2002, with the truancy rate up by 0.5 per cent.
For secondary schools the absence rate was 15 per cent, while at primary and intermediate schools it was 9 per cent.
