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‪On a national level, the number of children and young people in France who, subject to compulsory education, are educated outside of institutions is subject to various evaluations. The article examines how the administration of the National Education Ministry, particularly at the central level, defines and quantifies this population. The category of “family-educated” individuals, estimated at 0.36% of the “school-age” population in 2016-2017, has various technical and conceptual limitations. This article recalls other related categories that can also be taken into account to assess the sociological significance of the development of home education; it questions what the development and (non-) communication of these statistics reflect regarding the State's understanding of the phenomenon.