More than 6% of secondary pupils also missed more than a fifth of lessons.
In seven local authorities more than one in 10 secondary pupils were persistently absent.
There was a slight decline in overall absenteeism, from 6.44% to 6.26%, prompted by a fall in authorised absences such as family holidays.
The figures, showing children missing school in autumn term 2007 and spring 2008, record that almost 10 million half-day sessions were missed in unauthorised absences.
But the rate of unauthorised absences remained unchanged at 0.97% of all half-day sessions.
The absenteeism rate for primary schools rose to 0.56% of all sessions, up from 0.52% last year.
Related articles:
