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Data

Total net enrollment rate in primary education

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Global Education

What you should know about this indicator

  • Not all children of the right age are enrolled in the level of education intended for them — the net enrolment rate indicator shows how many are.
  • It captures the percentage of children in the official age group for a specific education level who are enrolled at that same level, such as primary or lower secondary.
  • The indicator is calculated by dividing the number of students of the correct age enrolled in that level by the total number of children in that age group.
  • For example, if primary education starts at age 7 and lasts six years, the official primary school age range would be 7 to 12 years.
  • A high net enrolment rate means that most children are enrolled where they are expected to be. The highest possible value is 100%.
  • The data comes from school administrative records, which track enrolment by single year of age, and from population estimates provided by national statistics offices or UN sources.
  • This indicator is especially useful for monitoring progress toward universal primary and secondary education.
  • However, it does not account for children who are enrolled in the correct level but are too young or too old, and it may miss students enrolled in the “wrong” grade for their age.
  • Differences between enrolment and population data can lead to small errors. In some cases, the net enrolment rate may slightly exceed 100%.
  • It's also not applied to tertiary education because of the wide range of entry ages and programme lengths at that level.

Total number of students of the official age group for primary education who are enrolled in 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 primary education who are enrolled in any level of education by the population of the same age group and multiply the result by 100. The difference between the total NER and the adjusted NER provides a measure of the proportion of children in the official relevant school age group who are enrolled in levels of education below the one intended for their age. The difference between the total NER and the adjusted NER for primary education is due to enrolment in pre-primary education. The total NER should be based on total enrolment of the official relevant school age group in any level of education for all types of schools and education institutions, including public, private and all other institutions that provide organized educational programmes.

Total net enrollment rate in primary education
Percentage of children of official primary school age who are enrolled in .
Source
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 1, 2025
Next expected update
May 2026
Date range
1970–2024
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

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: Total net enrollment rate 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/total-net-enrollment-rate-in-primary-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:

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. “Total net enrollment rate in primary education” [dataset]. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) - Education” [original data]. Retrieved May 22, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-net-enrollment-rate-in-primary-education