Statistics on Education Levels and Achievements

There’s a more descriptive post about the right to education here.

Content

1. Average years of schooling
2. Primary education
3. Secondary education
4. Post-secondary education
5. Test scores
6. Education and immigration
7. The link between education and spending on education
8. Intergenerational comparisons of education levels

1. Average years of schooling

In 2010, the world population aged 15 and over had an average 7.8 years of schooling, increasing steadily from 3.2 years in 1950 and 5.3 years in 1980. The rise in average years of schooling from 1950 to 2010 was from 6.2 to 11.0 years in high-income countries and from 2.1 to 7.1 years in low-income countries. Thus in 2010 the gap between rich and poor countries in average years of schooling remained at 4 years, having narrowed by less than 1 year since 1960. (source)

(source)

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2. Primary education

Primary enrollment has climbed from 47 percent to 87 percent since 1950. Almost everywhere in the world, there are now more children receiving primary education than 15 years ago. However, 15% of all children in the world still do not; in sub-Saharan Africa that’s 25% of children (37% of girls).

(source)

African girls still have less primary education compared to boys:

(source)

Although there has been some progress in the proportions of children of primary school age actually receiving and completing primary education, about 100 million children worldwide are still denied this right. Not surprisingly, most of these children live in developing countries. See this graph (expressed in millions):

(source)

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3. Secondary education

Rates for secondary education are obviously lower than rates for primary education:

(source)

As usual, there’s a gender disparity, although of course it’s better to have some disparity at a high level of achievement than equality at a low level of achievement:

(source, click image to enlarge)

Here are some data for the U.S.:

(source)

Apart from the (decreasing) racial disparity, there’s also an interesting difference between the north and the south of the U.S.:

(source)

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4. Post-secondary education

(source)

(source)

This is the racial breakdown of college degrees in the U.S.:

(source)

(source)

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5. Test scores

If we want to look beyond years of schooling and degrees and focus on the quality of education, then the PISA tests are the benchmark, at least for the developed countries. These test, in which 470,000 15-year-olds across different developed countries are tested for numeracy, literacy and science, produce the OECD rankings of national education systems. These knowledge tests allow for international comparisons of the quality of education:

(source)

Here are scores for the U.S., with a breakdown by race (national, non-PISA scores):

The race gap is closing, also for reading:

(source)

Unfortunately, the education gap between wealthy and poor children goes the other way.

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6. Education and immigration

Some data showing the difference between education levels of immigrants and natives:

Some data specifically for the U.S. show the difference between education levels of immigrants and natives:

(source)

(source)

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7. The link between education and spending on education

The correlation seems to be strong:

(source)

Or not, if you take other types of scores:

(source)

Spending alone doesn’t improve education. Other factors, such as having educated parents, are better predictors of education levels:

(source)

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8. Intergenerational comparisons of education levels

(source unknown)

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