This year's Annual Student Statistics Report, to be launched at the annual conference this Thursday, will be the most comprehensive ever.

Universities and further education colleges have shared their data on student numbers, junior to adult ratio and source markets for the first time, making it possible to compare performance in the state and private sectors.

The report will show an overall turnaround by UK ELT after three years of decline, with strong growth in many markets.

"We are really excited about sharing the 2017 report with our members and the wider industry," said Jodie Gray, English UK's director of strategic development. "Not only does it show the differences between the trading patterns of our state and private members, it contains detailed data which will help universities and FE colleges consider new markets and benchmark their own performance."

The state sector analysis conducted by StudentMarketing, English UK's insight partner, reveals it is much more reliant on Asian countries than private centres, and that 10 per cent of its students were under-18. This level of detail will enable trend analysis in future years.

Patrik Pavlacic, StudentMarketing's head of research who will present the figures at the English UK Annual Conference in London on Thursday, said: "The new state sector reporting put in place is the culmination of a several years' effort to level up the sector in terms of data. Going forward, institutions will be better equipped with market intelligence to drive their international student recruitment activities.  In our presentation we will be pinpointing some opportunity markets where the UK is still underrepresented."

"It is an additional highlight for the state sector that we're able to show where their students come from: their list of source markets are different in terms of countries and market share."

Historically, trading figures were submitted in different ways by state and private members of English UK after the association was formed from two specialist trade bodies in 2004.