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Net attendance rate of primary school

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Global Education

What you should know about this indicator

  • Many children who are the right age for a level of education are not actually attending school — the total net attendance rate indicator shows how many are, regardless of what level they attend.
  • It captures the percentage of children in the official age group for a given education level who are attending school, whether at the intended level or any other.
  • The indicator is calculated by dividing the number of children of the official age group who are attending school at any level by the total population of children in that age group.
  • For example, if primary education starts at age 7 and lasts six years, the total net attendance rate would be calculated for children aged 7 to 12.
  • A high total net attendance rate means most children of the expected age are participating in school. A low rate signals greater exclusion and highlights where education access needs to be improved.
  • This indicator is the complement to the out-of-school rate. If the attendance rate is low, the equivalent out-of-school rate is high.
  • Data for this indicator comes from household surveys and population censuses, which record attendance status and age. Accurate reference age is critical to ensure that children are grouped correctly.
  • The indicator can be disaggregated by sex, urban or rural location, and household wealth quintiles to help identify population groups that are being left out.
  • There are important technical considerations. Survey data may be collected months after the academic year starts, so the child’s age at data collection may not match the age at the start of the school year.
  • To address this, the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) adjusts age data when possible using birth month and year. If only the age in years is reported and the survey was conducted more than six months after the start of the academic year, one year is subtracted from the recorded age.
  • When survey data is collected within five months of the school year’s start, the recorded age is used as-is.
  • Despite adjustments, differences between survey responses and national education structures may affect comparability. Incomplete data — such as missing age, attendance status, or grade — are excluded from the calculation.
  • Even with these limitations, the total net attendance rate is a valuable measure of school participation that complements enrolment data and helps track progress toward universal access to education.

Total number of students of the official age group for a given level of education who are attending school at any level of education, expressed as a percentage of the corresponding population. Divide the total number of students in the official school age range for the given level of education who are attending school at any level of education by the population of the same age group and multiply the result by 100. The difference between the total NAR and the adjusted NAR provides a measure of the proportion of children in the official relevant school age group who are attending levels of education below the one intended for their age. The difference between the total NAR and the adjusted NAR for primary education is due to attendance of pre-primary education. Data Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics calculations based on national census data and household surveys. For more information, consult the UNESCO Institute for Statistics: http://uis.unesco.org/

Net attendance rate of primary school
Total number of students of the official age group for who are attending school at any level of education, expressed as a percentage of the corresponding population.
Source
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 1, 2025
Next expected update
May 2026
Date range
2000–2024
Unit
%

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: Net attendance rate of primary school”, 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/primary-school-attendance-selected-countries [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) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. “Net attendance rate of primary school” [dataset]. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) - Education” [original data]. Retrieved May 24, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/primary-school-attendance-selected-countries