Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union.
F5: Education, health and social protection
2920 Luxembourg LUXEMBOURG
This domain covers statistics and indicators on key aspects of the education systems across Europe. The data show entrants and enrolments in education levels, education personnel and the cost and type of resources dedicated to education.
For a general technical description of the UOE Data Collection see UNESCO OECD Eurostat (UOE) joint data collection – methodology - Statistics Explained (europa.eu).
The standards on international statistics on education and training systems are set by the three international organisations jointly administering the annual UOE data collection:
The following topics are covered:
Data on enrolments in education are disseminated in absolute numbers, with breakdowns available for the following dimensions:
Additionally, the following types of indicators on enrolments are calculated (all indicators using population data use Eurostat’s population database (demo_pjan)):
Data on entrants in education are disseminated in absolute numbers, with breakdowns available for the following dimensions:
Additionally the following indicator on entrants is calculated:
Data on learning mobility is available for degree mobile students, degree mobile graduates and credit mobile graduates. Degree mobility means that students/graduates are/were enrolled as regular students in any semester/term of a programme taught in the country of destination with the intention of graduating from it in the country of destination. Credit mobility is defined as temporary tertiary education or/and study-related traineeship abroad within the framework of enrolment in a tertiary education programme at a "home institution" (usually) for the purpose of gaining academic credit (i.e. credit that will be recognised in that home institution). Further definitions are in Section 2.8 of the UOE manual.
Degree mobile students are referred to as just ‘mobile students’ in UOE learning mobility tables. Data is disseminated for degree mobile students and degree mobile graduates in absolute numbers with breakdowns available for the following dimensions:
Additionally the following types of indicators on degree mobile students and degree mobile graduates are calculated ((all indicators using population data use Eurostat’s population database (demo_pjan)):
For credit mobile graduates, data are disseminated in absolute numbers, with breakdowns available for the following dimensions:
Data on personnel in education are available for classroom teachers/academic staff, teacher aides and school-management personnel. Teachers are employed in a professional capacity to guide and direct the learning experiences of students, irrespective of their training, qualifications or delivery mechanism. Teacher aides support teachers in providing instruction to students. Academic staff are personnel employed at the tertiary level of education whose primary assignment is instruction and/or research. School management personnel covers professional personnel who are responsible for school management/administration (ISCED 0-4) or whose primary or major responsibility is the management of the institution, or a recognised department or subdivision of the institution (tertiary levels). Full definitions of these statistical units are in Section 3.5 of the UOE manual.
Data are disseminated on teachers and academic staff in absolute numbers, with breakdowns available for the following dimensions:
Additionally the following types of indicators on personnel are calculated (all indicators using population data use Eurostat’s population database (demo_pjan)):
Data on education finance is available for expenditure on education, expenditure of/on educational institutions and on enrolments adjusted to statistics on educational finance and aligned to the financial year. The database calls this expenditure ‘of/on’ educational institutions because it is the sum of expenditure of educational institutions themselves (expenditure of educational institutions) and expenditure on the programmes they are running which comes from external sources and does not pass through the educational institutions’ accounts, for example when the government pays for teachers’ salaries directly, the UOE reports an expenditure of educational institutions even though the money did not pass through the educational institution’s account (expenditure on educational institutions).
For expenditure on education, data are disseminated in million units of national currency with breakdowns available for the following dimensions:
Additionally the following types of indicators on expenditure on education are calculated:
For expenditure of/on educational institutions, data are disseminated in million units of national currency with breakdowns available for the following dimensions:
Additionally the following types of indicators on expenditure of/on educational institutions are calculated:
For enrolments adjusted to statistics on educational finance and aligned to the financial year, data are disseminated in absolute numbers with the following breakdowns:
For education and training outcomes, UOE data is available for graduates and first-time graduates. A graduate is a person who, during the reference school or academic year, has successfully completed an education programme. A first-time graduate at a given level of education is a person who, during the reference school or academic year, has successfully completed an education programme at the given level for the first time. For graduates and first time graduates, data are disseminated in absolute numbers, with breakdowns available for the following dimensions:
Additionally, for graduates, the following types of indicators are calculated ((all indicators using population data use Eurostat’s population database (demo_pjan)):
Data on language learning is disseminated in absolute numbers with different combinations of the following breakdowns:
Additionally, the following types of indicators are calculated:
This data collection covers formal education programmes that represent at least the equivalent of one semester (or one-half of a school/academic year) of full-time study and are provided within the reporting country’s own territory. For further details see the UOE Manual on concepts, definitions and classifications.
Countries participating in this collection are compiling their data according to the concepts and definitions of the UOE data collection manuals on education systems statistics. For concepts and definitions of all datasets see the UOE Manual on concepts, definitions and classifications.
Questionnaires and other material are available on this site.
There are country specific notes to all tables (See annex at the bottom of the page).
In the UOE data collection on education statistics, the statistical units collected are students enrolled, entrants, graduates, mobile students enrolled and graduated, education personnel and expenditure.
In the Eurostat data collection on language learning the statistical unit is enrolments in studies of foreign languages. The Eurostat data collection on regions includes students enrolled by age, sex and ISCED level by NUTS2 regions (See Ramon, Eurostat's classification server for more details on the NUTS).
For an exhaustive description of all datasets see the UOE Manual on concepts, definitions and classifications.
The statistics refer to education in the school and university system, as defined in the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011). The basic unit of classification in ISCED 2011 is the educational programme.
The UOE data collection covers all organised and sustained learning opportunities for children, youth and adults, including those with special educational needs, irrespective of the institutions or organisations providing them or the form in which they are delivered. They cover school-based general education and vocational education/training (including combined school- and work-based programmes such as dual system apprenticeship). Exclusively (initial and continuing) work-based training is not included in the statistics. Programmes or studies designated as 'adult education' or 'continuing education' are included only if the content is similar to regular educational programmes or lead to similar potential qualifications.
The data collection covers all of a country's domestic educational activity (i.e. within its own territory).
For an exhaustive description of all the statistical populations of the different datasets, see the UOE Manual on concepts, definitions and classifications.
The UOE data collection on education statistics covers the EU Member States (Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Hungary, Netherlands, Austria, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Slovak Republic, Finland, and Sweden), United Kingdom (until 2020), the EFTA/EEA countries (Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland), the candidate countries (Albania, North Macedonia, Serbia and Turkey), as well as OECD Member States situated outside Europe (Australia, Canada, Japan, Korea, Mexico, New Zealand, United States) and other countries (e.g. Israel). The dissemination of education statistics by Eurostat is generally limited to the EU Member States and the EFTA/EEA and Candidate countries. Information on OECD Member States situated outside Europe can be provided by OECD.
Data cover mainly the period 1998 and onwards. A few data on enrolments, graduates and finance are available since 1990 or 1995. Due to the revision of the ISCED classification, data under the current classification ISCED11 is available from 2013 onwards.
For expenditure data, the base period is the financial year which is in general identical to the calendar year and thus running from 1st of January to 31st of December. However, there is one noticeable exception: in the United Kingdom the financial year is running from 1st of April to 31st of March.
For graduates, the base period is in general the calendar year and data refer to all graduates during the calendar year, with some exceptions, where graduate data refer to the academic year.
Data on students refer in general to the count on a given date at the beginning of the school/academic year, preferably at the end of the first month. Exceptions may be on pre-primary and tertiary levels of education, where enrolments can be counted as an average over several counting dates or as the count of individuals registered during the reference period. Data on personnel refer in general to a given date at the beginning of the school/academic year.
The UOE Data Collection consists of several datasets with different units of measures:
For a more exhaustive description of datasets and units of measures, see the UOE Manual on concepts, definitions and classifications.
The reference period for non-financial education data (such as students enrolled, entrants, personnel, regio, lang and credit mobility) shall refer to the school/academic year as defined nationally (year t/t+1). The transmission for enrolments, entrants, personnel, regio, and lang to the European Commission has to be done by 30 September in year t+2; for example 2024 data collection represents the academic year 2022/23. However, data for graduates refer either to all graduates during a calendar year (year t+1) or to the academic year as defined nationally (year t/t+1). The transmission for graduates and credit mobility to the European Commission has to be done by 30 November in year t+2.
For financial data the reference year is the fiscal year, e. g. data collection in year 2024 refers to the fiscal year of 2022. The number of students must be adapted to the fiscal year.
The basic legal act for UOE statistics is Regulation (EC) No 452/2008 of 23 April 2008 concerning the production and development of statistics on education and lifelong learning.
The following implementing regulations specify the details for data collection:
The methodological requirements are set up by Eurostat in cooperation with the participating countries, UNESCO-UIS and OECD. The definitions and methodological requirements are available on this site.
The main source of data is the joint UIS (UNESCO Institute for Statistics)/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) questionnaires on education statistics, which constitute the core database on education. Data from the EU Member States, the EFTA/EEA countries, and the Candidate countries are collected primarily by Eurostat. Data of countries that are also members or candidates to UIS and/or OECD are transmitted to the partner organisations accordingly.
Regulation (EC) No 223/2009 on European statistics (recital 24 and Article 20(4)) of 11 March 2009 (OJ L 87, p. 164), stipulates the need to establish common principles and guidelines ensuring the confidentiality of data used for the production of European statistics and the access to those confidential data with due account for technical developments and the requirements of users in a democratic society.
Not available.
Data are disseminated on an annual basis, normally in May.
Not available.
In line with the Community legal framework and the European Statistics Code of Practice Eurostat disseminates European statistics on Eurostat's website (see item 10 - 'Accessibility and clarity') respecting professional independence and in an objective, professional and transparent manner in which all users are treated equitably. The detailed arrangements are governed by the Eurostat protocol on impartial access to Eurostat data for users.
Ad-hoc news releases online when required.
Publications are available at the Eurostat website (Publications).
Online tables on education systems data from UOE data collection are available, see database.
Not available.
Eurydice, the information network on education in Europe, publishes in cooperation with Eurostat data and indicators on education in the publications ‘Key Data on Education' and ‘Key Data on languages'.
For general description, please see the online publication UNESCO OECD Eurostat (UOE) joint data collection – methodology - Statistics Explained.
The definitions and methodological requirements for the joint UOE data collection and for the Eurostat data collection on regional enrolments and foreign language learning are available on this website, in particular see the UOE Manual on concepts, definitions and classifications.
The International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED 2011) is the basis for international education statistics. The ISCED 2011 Operational Manual, elaborated by UIS, OECD and Eurostat, provides guidelines for classifying national education programmes and related qualifications according to ISCED 2011. It was prepared for national statisticians reporting data on education to international organisations and for all users interested in better understanding of these data.
Eurostat follows the quality management of the European Statistics Code of Practice (see Eurostat quality framework). Quality reports are to be provided by all reporting countries and published by Eurostat online accompanying the data.
The quality of the education systems statistics from UOE data collection is ensured through specific requirements set in Regulation (EC) No 452/2008 and the details provided in Commission Regulation (EU) No 912/2013 for data from 2013 onwards and Commission Regulation (EU) No 88/2011 for 2011 and 2012 data. Until 2011 data was collected based on gentlemen’s agreement.
Quality is also reflected through the use of harmonised definitions and concepts. Specific recommendations to help countries properly collecting the expected data are also available through a set of methodological documents and guidelines (see item 10.6. Documentation on methodology). The quality is discussed in working groups (such as the Education and Training Statistics Working Group) within the European Statistical System (ESS) and with other organisations involved in UOE data collection, namely UNESCO-UIS and OECD.
UOE data is provided in the standard questionnaires prepared jointly by the three organisations (UNESCO-UIS, OECD and Eurostat). For countries that are both EU and OECD members, a common validation process is carried out by the two organisations based on gentlemen’s agreement.
UOE statistics are considered to be of good quality thanks to a harmonised production process (as described in item 11.1. above).
Data quality requirements and standard quality reports are set out in Annex II of Commission Regulation (EU) No 912/2013. The EU Member States and EFTA countries are obliged to transmit to Eurostat the standard quality reports together with ISCED mapping of national programmes and qualifications every year.
National quality reports (available at the top of this page in National metadata) provide users with basic information on quality at national level and document compliance with the definitions and concepts as stated in the detailed guidelines for UOE data collection. Deviations from the definitions and concepts should be documented and explained, and if possible quantified.
The use of estimates and revisions should be clearly identified at the level of tables and breakdowns.
Statistics on education systems based on UOE data collection support monitoring the education participation and outcomes. They provide at EU level, detailed results on the pupil/student population, new entrants, graduates, learning mobility, education personnel, language learning and education finance. Numbers of students enrolled, entrants and graduates are collected by age, sex, education level, programme orientation and completion, type of institution, intensity of participation, field of study, and country of origin. Education finance data are used for monitoring investment in education.
UOE data is also used to measure one of the benchmarks which have been set for education in ET 2020 Strategy. At least 95% of children (from 4 to compulsory primary school age) should participate in early childhood education.
There is no satisfaction survey targeted at UOE users. The content of the UOE data collection and the type of results that are disseminated by Eurostat on its website was consulted by Eurostat with stakeholders as much as possible. There are regular meetings with the main users to get their opinion and to satisfy their needs in terms of data availability.
The data sent by participating countries to Eurostat are overall complete and match the requirements set out in the Commission Regulations or gentlemen’s agreement (before reference year 2011) respectively.
Nevertheless, some national datasets are not always fully matching the expected format because some content is missing or not applicable. In those cases the data disseminated are displayed as ‘not available’ (‘:’) or ‘not applicable’ (‘:’z). This can be explained either because the country could not implement the variable for some reason and may have received a temporary derogation from implementing the Commission Regulations or because the concept does not exist in the country.
For detailed information on single data points please consult the national quality reports.
The overall accuracy of UOE statistics is considered as high. The data source is in most cases administrative data.
Incompleteness of private expenditure on education:
In many countries, private expenditure on education contained in some indicators is not comprehensive. This is in particular true for the payments of other private entities (e.g. firms, non-profit organisations, religious institutions) to educational institutions that are often very difficult to track back through administrative records. This can sometimes result in a significant under-evaluation of private expenditure on education that has to be taken into account when interpreting indicators on education finance statistics.
Influence of effects that are exogenous to the education system on some education finance statistics indicators:
Effects that are exogenous to the education system, but are contained in auxiliary indicators (e.g. Gross Domestic Product, Gross National Income, GDP-Deflator or Purchasing Power Parity) used to calculate indicators on education finance statistics may sometimes bias the interpretation of some indicators.
Not applicable.
The main type of non-sampling error is coverage error due to the divergence between the frame population and the target population. Detailed information on coverage errors is provided in the countries' quality reports.
Pupils/students enrolled, entrants, personnel, language learning: 2 years after end of the reference period.
Graduates and Credit Mobility: 1.5 years after end of the reference period.
Finance: 2.5 years after end of the reference period.
Detailed information on punctuality is provided in the countries' quality reports.
Differences in education systems
The education systems differ between countries. The ISCED 2011 classification makes it possible to compare educational levels in spite of these differences, but the differences may nevertheless affect certain figures. The degree structures differ between countries. To which extent students qualify for and receive more than one qualification differs between the countries, as well as the length of studies to obtain a degree.
National ISCED mappings, presenting classification of education programmes and qualifications in ISCED 1997 and ISCED are available on CIRCABC website (link).
Participation rates above 100%
In indicators on participation rates, enrolment statistics are related to population statistics. The reference date for ages is the same (1st of January) but differences in data collection dates or methodologies may result in slight differences, which affect the participation rates. Percentages above 100 percent can be due to such differences, but can also appear because of inflows or outflows of students. The enrolment statistics refer to all education enrolments within the country while population statistics refer to residents in the country. In some countries, where the outflow of students is substantial (Luxembourg, Cyprus), specific notes are added in the tables, but other countries' figures may also be affected.
Ambiguities of classification with regards to levels of government
The classification of governments by level is clear in most cases, but there are some ambiguities. If a country only has two levels of government, the lower level usually is designated local, not regional. If there are four or more levels, the second level usually is designated regional and the third, local. If a city (such as the national capital) has dual status as both regional and local government, its expenditure is reported as expenditure of regional level of government (e.g. the Stadtstaaten Hamburg, Bremen and Berlin in Germany).
Different concepts used for "country of origin" in learning mobility data
Country of origin in the learning mobility data should in principle refer to the "country of prior secondary education". However, until the reference year 2016 countries might use instead country of prior residence or citizenship or other. From reference year 2016 onwards all countries should report data according to "country of prior education". Information on the specific definition currently used by countries is available in Chapter 3. Annexes "Footnotes - Learning mobility".
Introduction of the ISCED 2011 classification:
Compared to ISCED 1997 which had seven levels of education, ISCED 2011 now has nine levels of education, from level 0 to level 8:
Correspondence between ISCED 2011 and ISCED 1997 levels (at 1-digit ISCED 1997)
| ISCED 1997
(data up to 2012) | ISCED 2011
(data from 2013 onwards) |
|---|---|
| - | ISCED 01 |
| ISCED 0 | ISCED 02 |
| ISCED 1 | ISCED 1 |
| ISCED 2 | ISCED 2 |
| ISCED 3 | ISCED 3* |
| ISCED 4 | ISCED 4* |
| ISCED 5 | ISCED 5 |
| ISCED 6 | |
| ISCED 7 | |
| ISCED 6 | ISCED 8 |
* Content of category has been modified slightly.
ISCED 2011 took into account the changes in education systems occurred over the last decade, mainly relating to the Bologna process in tertiary education (link: The Bologna Process and the European Higher Education Area | European Education Area (europa.eu)), but also to the expansion of education programmes for very young children. With ISCED 2011 education programmes can be coded up to 3-digit-level.
Data and indicators on education, where the data source is the joint UOE data collection, are also published by OECD and UIS.
The main OECD publication, 'Education at a Glance', is published on this site.
Access to UIS' database and tables (Select "View indicators").
Differences in the personnel counts of Academic Staff in FIN and PERS
"Teaching Staff" in the financial data (FIN) does purposely not correspond with "Classroom Teachers and Academic Staff" in the non-financ personnel data (PERS).
In PERS, data is only collected on staff involved in teaching activities, when teaching takes more than 50% of their contractual working time in the above-mentioned Function "I.A Academic Staff". FIN includes expenditure on all personnel involved in student instruction. And FIN also includes expenditure on teaching and non-teaching staff.
The Non-teaching staff category includes, in addition to head-teachers and other administrators of schools, researchers, research assistants, supervisors, counsellors, school psychologists, school health personnel, librarians or educational media specialists, curriculum developers, inspectors, educational administrators at the local, regional, and national level, clerical personnel, building operations and maintenance staff, security personnel, transportation workers, food service workers, etc.. Support personnel (such as quality control, operations and management, and administrative support) to research activities in tertiary educational institutions) are also included in this category. The exact list of occupations included in this category will vary from one country to another. PERS includes all personnel employed at the tertiary level of education whose primary assignment is instruction and/or research.
Indication of the cost associated with the collection and production of UOE data is provided by countries in quality reports.
The general Eurostat revision policy applies to this domain.
Reported errors are assessed for seriousness to determine whether they should trigger a correction of already disseminated data. Reported errors are corrected in the disseminated data as soon as the correct data have been validated. Data may be published even if they are missing or flagged as provisional for certain countries. They are replaced with final data once transmitted and validated.
Individual revisisions are provided in the countries' quality reports.
The main source of data is the joint UIS (UNESCO Institute of Statistics)/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) questionnaires on education statistics, which constitute the core database on education. The UOE data collection is an administrative data collection that is administered jointly by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation - Institute for Statistics (UNESCO-UIS), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the Statistical Office of the European Union (EUROSTAT). Data on regional enrolments and foreign language learning are collected additionally by Eurostat.
Commission Regulation No 88/2011 regarding statistics on education and training systems was the first EU legal implementing act covering the above mentioned data. 2012 was the first year of application of the Regulation. The first data provided according to that Regulation refers to the school academic year 2010/2011 and, as far as data on education expenditure are concerned, to the financial year 2010. Data for previous years were reported on a voluntary basis from countries (i.e. so called gentlemen's agreement). in 2013, it was replaced by Commission Regulation 912/2013.
The results of the UOE data collection on education statistics are compiled on the basis of national administrative sources, reported by Ministries of Education or National Statistical Offices. Countries provide data, coming from administrative records, on the basis of commonly agreed definitions.
The national data collections on enrolments, graduates, personnel etc. are in most countries surveyed from administrative sources or in some cases extractions from administrative registers. Moreover, auxiliary indicators from statistics on demography (e.g. population) or the National Accounts (e.g. Gross Domestic Product, Total Public Expenditure) are used to calculate some of the indicators.
Detailed data sources are described in the countries' national quality reports.
Annual.
Data are collected from countries using tables in SDMX standards. EU, EFTA and Candidate countries use eDAMIS, Eurostat's dedicated platform, for transmitting the data back to Eurostat. Afterwards Eurostat makes all data available to OECD and UNESCO via a restricted online space. The international organisations process and verify the data after their reception.
The questionnaires are publicly available under CIRCABC Education and Training Statistics. Data published by Eurostat is collected in 6 Excel files plus a quality report also in Excel format.
OECD and UNESCO-UIS collect additional countries and questionnaires that do not fall under EU legislation.
Since 2012, first year of application of Commission Regulation No 88/2011, there is a joint data validation made by Eurostat and OECD on the data transmitted by the countries that are both EU or EFTA, and OECD members. Each organisation validates the data for the remaining member countries. The validated data are shared between the three organisations.
Data is submitted at the EU portal EDAMIS, where it undergoes an automated validation check. Depending on the results, data is revised and resubmitted until passing the automated validation check. Optionally, validation can be done manually with a R-code that is provided by OECD containing the same quality criteria. Upon successful transmission, validation is continued manually by experts of Eurostat and OECD. Depending of the outcome of the manual validation, data needs to be revised and handed in again until correct.
European aggregates in absolute figures are in most cases disseminated only if data are available for all countries. In some cases, the aggregates are estimated by for example imputing data for previous years.
European averages are computed by adding up the data provided by the countries. They are calculated taking into account all relevant countries for which data are available.
Data on educational expenditure are compiled on a cash accounting rather than an accrual accounting basis as many countries use this system to record government expenditure and revenues. Expenditure is recorded in the year in which the payments occurred. This means in particular that:
Expenditure on student loans is recorded as the gross loan outlays in the year in which the loans are made, without netting-off repayments from existing borrowers.
Enrolment data are adjusted to the reference period of the financial year, by weighting the school years overlapping the financial year. These adjusted enrolment data are then used in combination with financial data to calculate financial indicators that are related to enrolment (e.g. expenditure per pupil/student).
Adjustments of educational expenditure figures are made when the financial year is not corresponding to the calendar year in order to ensure full comparability of the indicators across countries. The adjustment method is varying depending on the indicator on education finance statistics. Information about adjustments, if necessary, is provided through specific footnotes.
Not available.