{"chart":{"title":"Average years of schooling vs. expected years of schooling","subtitle":"Average number of years the population older than 25 participated in formal education vs. the number of years a child of school entrance age can expect to receive if the current age-specific enrollment rates persist throughout the child’s years of schooling.","note":"Formal education is primary/ISCED 1 or higher.","citation":"UNDP, Human Development Report (2025)","originalChartUrl":"https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/average-schooling-vs-expected-schooling","selection":[]},"columns":{"Average years of schooling":{"titleShort":"Average years of schooling","titleLong":"Average years of schooling - UNDP","descriptionShort":"Average number of years (excluding years spent repeating individual grades) adults over 25 years participated in formal education.","descriptionKey":"- This indicator shows the average number of years that adults in a country have spent in formal education.\n- It reflects the overall educational attainment of the population based on what they have already completed.\n- The calculation converts each person's highest completed education level into years - for example, someone who finished high school counts as having roughly 12 years of schooling, while someone who never attended school counts as 0 years.\n- The data comes from censuses and surveys of adults aged 25 and older, including only formal education starting from primary school.\n- This indicator captures how much schooling adults have accumulated over their lifetimes, showing the results of past investments in education systems.\n- Higher values indicate a population with stronger educational foundations, but the measure does not account for education quality or informal learning.\n- The data may not reflect recent progress in countries with infrequent surveys or outdated census information.\n- UNDP originally obtained this indicator from: Barro and Lee (2018), Eurostat (2024), ICF Macro Demographic and Health Surveys (various years), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2024) and UNICEF Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (various years).","unit":"years","timespan":"1990-2023","type":"Numeric","owidVariableId":1032446,"shortName":"mys__sex_total","lastUpdated":"2025-05-07","nextUpdate":"2026-11-30","citationShort":"UNDP, Human Development Report (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data","citationLong":"UNDP, Human Development Report (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Average years of schooling – UNDP” [dataset]. UNDP, Human Development Report, “Human Development Report” [original data].","fullMetadata":"https://api.ourworldindata.org/v1/indicators/1032446.metadata.json"},"Expected years of schooling":{"titleShort":"Expected years of schooling","titleLong":"Expected years of schooling - UNDP","descriptionShort":"Number of years a child of school-entrance-age can expect to receive if the current age-specific enrollment rates persist throughout the child's life.","descriptionKey":"- This indicator shows how many years a student starting school in that year is expected to spend in education.  It's based on the enrollment patterns observed in that country in that specific year.\n- The calculation looks at how many students are enrolled at each age and education level, then estimates how long a new student would stay in school if those patterns continued. This includes time spent repeating grades, not just the official length of each school level.\n- It measures participation in schooling - how long students are likely to stay in school - rather than whether they actually learn or graduate.\n- Higher numbers mean students spend more years in school, either because the official school system is longer or because many students repeat grades.\n- UNDP originally obtained this indicator from: ICF Macro Demographic and Health Surveys (various years), UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2024) and United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (various years).","unit":"years","timespan":"1990-2023","type":"Numeric","owidVariableId":1032433,"shortName":"eys__sex_total","lastUpdated":"2025-05-07","nextUpdate":"2026-11-30","citationShort":"UNDP, Human Development Report (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data","citationLong":"UNDP, Human Development Report (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Expected years of schooling – UNDP” [dataset]. UNDP, Human Development Report, “Human Development Report” [original data].","fullMetadata":"https://api.ourworldindata.org/v1/indicators/1032433.metadata.json"},"Population (historical)":{"titleShort":"Population","titleLong":"Population","descriptionShort":"Population by country, available from 10,000 BCE to 2023, based on data and estimates from different sources.","descriptionKey":"- Population is the most commonly used metric throughout Our World in Data. It is used directly to understand population growth over time, and indirectly to calculate per-capita indicators, making it easier to compare countries of different sizes.\n- We construct this indicator by combining multiple sources covering different periods.\n  - HYDE v3.3 (2023): historical estimates from 10,000 BCE to 1799.\n  - Gapminder v7 (2022): for 1800-1949.\n  - UN World Population Prospects (2024): for 1950 onwards, including 2100 projections.\n  - Gapminder Systema Globalis (2023): additional source for former countries (Yugoslavia, USSR, etc.)\n- Breaks in the data may occur at the boundaries between sources due to their methodological differences.\n- You can read more about the sources and methodology in our [dedicated article](https://ourworldindata.org/population-sources). We also provide a table of sources showing the source we use for each country-year.\n- We calculate geographical aggregates (continents, income groups, etc.) by summing individual country populations. For years before 1800, we rely directly on HYDE's values for continents to ensure historical consistency.","descriptionProcessing":"### Combination of different sources\nWe construct our long-run population data by combining multiple sources:\n\n- 10,000 BCE–1799: historical estimates by HYDE (v3.3).\n\n- 1800–1949: historical estimates by Gapminder (v7).\n\n- 1950–2023: population records from the United Nations World Population Prospects (2024 revision).\n\n**Geographical aggregates**\n\n- For most years, we calculate aggregates by summing the population of member countries.\n- We do this based on [our definition of continents](https://ourworldindata.org/world-region-map-definitions#our-world-in-data) and the [World Bank’s income groups](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-bank-income-groups).\n- The only exception is before 1800, where we use HYDE's estimates for continents (but not income groups).\n\nFor most of the years, we've estimated regional aggregates by summing the population of countries in each region. We've relied on [our continents](https://ourworldindata.org/world-region-map-definitions#our-world-in-data) and [World Bank income group definitions](https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/world-bank-income-groups). The only exception is before 1800, where we've used HYDE's estimates on continents (but not income groups).\n\n**World**\n- Before 1800: we use data from HYDE.\n- 1800-1950: we estimate the global population by summing all available countries in the dataset.\n- After 1950, we rely on estimates from the United Nations World Population Prospects.","shortUnit":"","unit":"people","timespan":"-10000-2023","type":"Integer","owidVariableId":953903,"shortName":"population_historical","lastUpdated":"2024-07-15","nextUpdate":"2026-12-15","citationShort":"HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data","citationLong":"HYDE (2023); Gapminder (2022); UN WPP (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. “Population – HYDE, Gapminder, UN – Long-run data” [dataset]. PBL Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency, “History Database of the Global Environment 3.3”; Gapminder, “Population v7”; United Nations, “World Population Prospects”; United Nations, “World Population Prospects – Interim Update”; Gapminder, “Systema Globalis” [original data].","fullMetadata":"https://api.ourworldindata.org/v1/indicators/953903.metadata.json"},"World region according to OWID":{"titleShort":"World region according to OWID","titleLong":"World region according to OWID","descriptionShort":"Regions defined by Our World in Data, which are used in OWID charts and maps.","unit":"","timespan":"2023-2023","type":"Continent","owidVariableId":900801,"shortName":"owid_region","lastUpdated":"2023-01-01","citationShort":"Our World in Data","citationLong":"Our World in Data. “World region according to OWID” [dataset]. Our World in Data, “Regions” [original data].","fullMetadata":"https://api.ourworldindata.org/v1/indicators/900801.metadata.json"}},"dateDownloaded":"2026-10-31"}