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Share of the population with post-secondary education

What you should know about this indicator

The percentage of population (age 25 and over) with at least completed post-secondary education (ISCED 4 or higher). This indicator is calculated by dividing the number of persons aged 25 years and above with completed post-secondary education by the total population of the same age group and multiplying the result by 100. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) educational attainment dataset shows the educational composition of the population aged 25 years and above and hence the stock and quality of human capital within a country. The dataset also reflects the structure and performance of the education system and its accumulated impact on human capital formation. For more information, visit the UNESCO Institute for Statistics website: http://www.uis.unesco.org/

World Bank variable id: UIS.EA.4T6.AG25T99

Original source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Source
World Bank (2023) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
July 10, 2023
Date range
1970–2019
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The World Bank EdStats database offers a comprehensive array of over 8,000 internationally comparable indicators related to education access, progression, completion, literacy, teachers, demographics, and expenditures. It covers the education cycle from pre-primary to vocational and tertiary education, including data on learning outcomes from assessments like PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS, equity data from household surveys, and educational projections up to 2050.

Retrieved on
July 26, 2023
Retrieved from
https://databank.worldbank.org/reports.aspx?source=Education%20Statistics
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.
World Bank Education Statistics (EdStats), World Bank, 2023. Licence: CC BY 4.0.

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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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: Share of the population with post-secondary education”. Our World in Data (2024). Data adapted from World Bank. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-a-completed-post-secondary-education [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:

World Bank (2023) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Bank (2023) – processed by Our World in Data. “Share of the population with post-secondary education” [dataset]. World Bank, “World Bank Education Statistics (EdStats) 2023” [original data]. Retrieved July 26, 2024 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/share-of-the-population-with-a-completed-post-secondary-education