Statistics on Education Levels and Achievements

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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)

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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. Enrollment rates of primary school age children have increased markedly in sub-Saharan Africa, from 58 to 76 per cent between 1999 and 2010. However, this means that about 15% of all children in the world still do not go to primary school; in sub-Saharan Africa that’s 25% of children (37% of girls). 1 in 5 young people in developing countries has not completed primary school. 61 million children are still out of primary school. 32 million of them are girls.

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Although there has been 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):

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More than half of those are in Africa.

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African girls still have less primary education compared to boys:

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Worldwide, 89% of girls complete primary school. In Africa, it’s 67%.

There has been global progress in gender parity: per 100 boys, 97 girls were enrolled in primary education in 2010 – up from 91 girls per 100 boys in 1999.

Female school enrollment isn’t just a problem in primary education. This graph shows that in many countries, less than half the girls aged 5 to 19 are in school. That’s the percentage which we saw in the US in 1900!

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Some more data on secondary education below.

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3. Secondary education

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

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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.:

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As is so often the case in the U.S., there’s a racial discrepancy, albeit a diminishing one:

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US high school drop-out rate by race and socio-economic status

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

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4. Post-secondary education

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

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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:

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

The race gap is closing, also for reading:

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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:

Migrants to rich countries have generally spent longer in education than their native-born peers, according to a new report by the OECD. Since 2000 the proportion of recent migrants to OECD countries who have graduated from university has risen five percentage points to 31%; among the native-born population the proportion has risen four percentage points to 29%. Over 50% of immigrants to Canada and 47% of those to Britain have completed tertiary education, the highest levels among rich countries. By contrast, only 11% of immigrants to Italy and 13% to Greece have a degree. (source)

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

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7. The link between education and spending on education

The correlation seems to be strong:

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Or not, if you take other types of scores:

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

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8. Intergenerational comparisons of education levels

(source unknown)

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