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Lower secondary school completion rates, adjusted gender parity index

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Global Education

What you should know about this indicator

  • Many children do not reach the final grade of lower secondary education — this indicator shows how close boys and girls are to completing lower secondary school by a slightly older age than expected.
  • It captures gender equality in completion rates for by comparing the percentage of girls and boys, aged 3 to 5 years older than the official age for the last grade of lower secondary school, who have successfully completed that level.
  • The completion age group is based on the expected school progression — assuming students start on time and advance without repeating or skipping grades. For example, if lower secondary starts at age 12 and lasts 3 years, completion is measured among 17–19-year-olds.
  • The adjusted gender parity index (GPIA) is calculated by dividing the female completion rate by the male completion rate. If the result exceeds 1, it is inverted and subtracted from 2. The index ranges from 0 to 2, with 1 indicating exact parity.
  • A value of 1 means girls and boys complete lower secondary education at equal rates. Values below 1 suggest an advantage for boys; values above 1 suggest an advantage for girls.
  • A high completion rate — close to 100% — indicates that nearly all children complete lower secondary school by the benchmark age, accounting for delays. Lower rates may reflect late school entry, dropout, repetition, or systemic barriers to completion.
  • The data are derived from national censuses, labour force surveys, or other household surveys, often mapped to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) levels post-collection. These are combined with official data on school starting ages and programme duration.
  • Key limitations exist. Cross-country comparisons can be influenced by differences in ISCED mappings, evolving national education structures, and potential underestimation of completion rates when actual programme lengths deviate from official definitions.
Lower secondary school completion rates, adjusted gender parity index
An of 1 indicates equal lower secondary school completion rates between boys and girls. Values below 1 favor boys, and values above 1 favor girls.
Source
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 1, 2025
Next expected update
May 2026
Date range
1990–2024

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is the official and trusted source of internationally-comparable data on education, science, culture and communication. As the official statistical agency of UNESCO, the UIS produces a wide range of state-of-the-art databases to fuel the policies and investments needed to transform lives and propel the world towards its development goals. The UIS provides free access to data for all UNESCO countries and regional groupings from 1970 to the most recent year available.

Retrieved on
May 1, 2025
Retrieved from
https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources/bulk
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Education, https://uis.unesco.org/bdds, 2025

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Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Lower secondary school completion rates, adjusted gender parity index”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska, Natasha Ahuja, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, and Max Roser (2023) - “Global Education”. Data adapted from UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/lower-secondary-completion-rate-adjusted-gender-parity-index [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Lower secondary school completion rates, adjusted gender parity index” [dataset]. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) - Education” [original data]. Retrieved May 18, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/lower-secondary-completion-rate-adjusted-gender-parity-index