In March 1997, all State, Territory and Commonwealth education ministers agreed on the national goal: that every child leaving primary school should be numerate and able to read, write and spell at an appropriate level. To provide focus for this goal, ministers agreed to a sub-goal: that every child commencing school from 1998 will achieve a minimum acceptable literacy and numeracy standard within four years. To help support the achievement of these goals, ministers agreed to the implementation of the National Literacy and Numeracy Plan, the essential features of which are: (1) early assessment and intervention for students at risk of not achieving minimum required standards; (2) development of national benchmarks for each of years 3, 5, and 7; (3) assessment of student progress against these benchmarks; (4) national reporting of benchmark data, and (5) professional development for teachers. Education authorities in all States and Territories, assisted by the Commonwealth, have been engaged in implementing these elements of the plan since its formulation. This paper concerns the national reporting of benchmark data for 2005 and follows on from earlier editions of the "National Report on Schooling in Australia," which published data for 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004. The publications reflect the continuing development of the benchmark reporting process. This 2005 edition also provides data on the performance of students in metropolitan, provincial, remote and very remote areas. In each State and Territory, students' school locations are categorised using the Ministerial Council on Education, Employment, Training and Youth Affairs (MCEETYA) Geographical Location Classification, and procedures closely related to the approaches of the Australian Bureau of Statistics. (Contains 30 tables and 12 figures.) [For "National Report on Schooling in Australia, 2004. Preliminary Paper. National Benchmark Results Reading, Writing and Numeracy Years 3, 5 and 7," see ED534694.]