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.
13. Penwortham Priory Academy (ranked 28)
Penwortham Priory Academy had 169 applicants put the school as a first preference but only 145 of these were offered places. This means 24 pupils did not get a place. Photo: Google Maps
14. Ashton Community Science College (ranked 29th)
Ashton Community Science College had 148 applicants put the school as a first preference but only 127 of these were offered places. This means 21 pupils did not get a place. Photo: NW
15. Holy Cross Catholic High School (ranked 30th)
Holy Cross Catholic High School had 215 applicants put the school as a first preference but only 186 of these were offered places. This means 29 pupils did not get a place. Photo: NW
16. Christ The King Catholic High School (ranked 31st)
Christ The King Catholic High School had 80 applicants put the school as a first preference but only 70 of these were offered places. This means 10 pupils did not get a place. Photo: Google Maps