The average cost to educate a student rang in at $10,678 per year in 2007-08, according to Statistics Canada. (Eric Gay/Associated Press)

In just a few short weeks, students across the country will be overstuffing their backpacks, staking out their schoolbus seats, and filing into classrooms.

So we've done our homework early and taken a by-the-numbers look at the state of education in Canada, including data on teacher salaries, graduation rates and student loans.

1,112,370 - number of university students enrolled across Canada (2008-09) (Statistics Canada)

5.1 million - number of students attending public elementary and secondary schools in Canada (2007-08). This represents a 0.9 per cent decline from the year before. (Statistics Canada)

311,000 - students enrolled in a second-language immersion program in 2007-08 - marking a 2.2 per cent increase from the previous school year. (Statistics Canada)

1.1% - increase in the number of students who received partial or full-time special needs education (568,000) in 2007-08 as compared with the year before. (*Does not include data from Yukon and Nunavut) (Statistics Canada)

A recent assessment of physical activity levels among Canadian children found the majority were not sufficiently active. (Tom Strickland/Associated Press)

12 - per cent of children and youth engaging in enough physical activity, according to the 2010 Active Healthy Kids Report Card. The benchmark guidelines suggest children aged six to 14 should strive to engage in 60 minutes of moderate physical activity and 30 minutes of vigorous activity daily.

71% - graduation rate for publicly funded high schools in 2007-08. In 2006-07 the rate was 71.3 per cent. (Statistics Canada)

74.8% vs. 67.5% - high school graduation rate for females compared with the rate for males. (Statistics Canada)

14.4 to 1 - student to educator ratio in public schools in 2007-08. (Statistics Canada)

$69,046 - average remuneration of public school educators in 2007-08. Educators in Alberta earned an average of $80,393 while their counterparts in P.E.I. collected $53,928.

$51.2 billion - total expenditures in elementary and secondary schools in Canada (2007-08), representing a 2.9 increase from the previous year. (Statistics Canada)

$10,678 - average cost to educate a student (elementary, secondary, adult or vocational) for one year in 2007/2008. (Statistics Canada)

$4,917 - average undergraduate tuition fee in Canada. (Statistics Canada)

4.3 million - number of students who received a loan since the Canada Student Loan Program was created in 1964.

$621 - amount Canadians plan to spend on back-to-school shopping, according to a VISA survey. The online survey of 1,001 people, conducted from July 12-19, also projected there would be a seven per cent increase in online shopping. The survey had a margin of error of plus or minus 3.2 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.

10-15% of body weight - maximum amount child's backpack should weigh, according to the Hospital for Sick Children. This ratio equates to about two to four kilograms per packed bag.