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Data

Pupil-qualified teacher ratio in primary education

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Global Education

What you should know about this indicator

  • This indicator shows how many pupils are taught, on average, by each qualified teacher at a specific level of education.
  • A qualified teacher is defined as someone who has met the minimum academic and professional requirements to teach at the relevant level in their country, often specific to the subjects they are assigned to.
  • The indicator is calculated by dividing the total number of pupils enrolled at a given level of education by the number of qualified teachers at that same level.
  • A lower ratio generally suggests more individual attention per student and potentially higher teaching quality, while higher ratios may signal teacher shortages or large class sizes.
  • Data are based on headcounts, but where possible, adjustments are made for part-time teachers (converted to full-time equivalents), double-shift teachers (counted twice), and other teaching practices such as multi-grade classrooms.
  • Teachers included are professionals whose main role is to deliver formal curriculum content to students in recognized educational institutions.
  • This indicator is useful for assessing the adequacy of the teaching workforce and for evaluating education quality and equity.
  • However, it should be interpreted with care, as national definitions of “qualified” vary and the ratio may not reflect actual classroom conditions or teaching effectiveness.
  • Other contextual factors, such as school schedules, subject specialization, and administrative responsibilities, may also influence the interpretation of the ratio.

Average number of pupils per qualified teacher at a given level of education, based on headcounts of both pupils and teachers. Divide the total number of pupils enrolled at the specified level of education by the number of qualified teachers at the same level. A qualified teacher is one who has the minimum academic qualifications necessary to teach at a specific level of education in a given country. This is usually related to the subject(s) they teach. In computing and interpreting this indicator, one should take into account the existence of part-time teaching, school-shifts, multi-grade classes and other practices that may affect the precision and meaningfulness of pupil-teacher ratios. When feasible, the number of part-time teachers is converted to ‘full-time equivalent’ teachers; a double-shift teacher is counted twice, etc. Teachers are defined as persons whose professional activity involves the transmitting of knowledge, attitudes and skills that are stipulated in a formal curriculum programme to students enrolled in a formal educational institution.

Pupil-qualified teacher ratio in primary education
A qualified teacher is one who has the minimum academic qualifications necessary to teach at a level of education in a given country.
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
1999–2024

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

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

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  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
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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: Pupil-qualified teacher ratio in primary education”, 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/pupil-teacher-ratio-for-primary-education-by-country [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. “Pupil-qualified teacher ratio in primary education” [dataset]. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) - Education” [original data]. Retrieved May 21, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/pupil-teacher-ratio-for-primary-education-by-country