Across England, 8% of primary school applicants and 17% of secondary school applicants did not get a place at their first choice school for 2022/2023, affecting nearly 150,000 children in total.
Inner London was found to have the hardest secondary schools to get into in the country, with 30% of children not getting their first choice secondary school, whilst the North West had 15% not get their first secondary chool choice.
In Lancashire, 66 secondary schools made the oversubscribed list, and 28 of these were in Preston, Chorley and South Ribble.
How competitive is it to get into your secondary school? Here we reveal which secondary schools in Preston, Chorley and South Ribble are the hardest to get into, ranked from highest to lowest.
All the information is from Department of Education data released in June, which you can download here.

1. Secondary schools ranked from most oversubscribed to the least
28 secondary schools in Preston, Chorley and South Ribble were oversubscrbied for 2022/23, take a look below. Photo: NW

2. Albany Academy (ranked 2nd)
Albany Academy had 193 applicants put the school as a first preference but only 121 of these were offered places. This means 72 pupils did not get a place. Photo: Kelvin Stuttard

3. Broughton High School (ranked 3rd)
Broughton High School had 253 applicants put the school as a first preference but only 167 of these were offered places. This means 86 pupils did not get a place. Photo: Google Maps

4. Preston Muslim Girls High School (ranked 4th)
Preston Muslim Girls High School had 173 applicants put the school as a first preference but only 116 of these were offered places. This means 57 pupils did not get a place. Photo: Google Maps