Pupil/teacher ratios in public and private elementary and secondary schools, by level of education and country: 2017 through 2021

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Table 601.50.Pupil/teacher ratios in public and private elementary and secondary schools, by level of education and country: 2017 through 2021
Country	Elementary school (primary)										Junior high school (lower secondary)					Senior high school (upper secondary)
Country	2017		2018		2019		2020		2021		2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2017		2018		2019		2020		2021
1	2		3		4		5		6		7	8	9	10	11	12		13		14		15		16
OECD average¹	14.8		14.6		14.5		14.4		14.2		13.0	13.0	13.1	13.2	12.8	13.2		13.0		13.0		12.9		13.0
Australia	15.1		14.9		15.1		14.8		14.5		---	---	---	---	---	12.0	^2,3	11.9	^2,3	12.1	^2,3	12.1	^2,3	11.9	^2,3
Austria	11.3		11.6		12.0		12.2		12.0		8.6	8.5	8.5	8.6	8.7	10.1		10.1		10.1		9.9		10.0
Belgium	12.9		12.8		12.7		12.5		12.1		9.0	8.9	8.9	8.8	8.3	9.7		9.6		9.5		9.3		9.0
Canada	16.2	^4,5	16.7	^4,5	16.4	^4,5	16.3	^4,5	16.0	^4,5	---	---	---	---	---	13.1		13.3		13.0		12.8		12.1
Chile	19.8		19.4		18.6		18.6		18.4		20.4	20.2	19.2	20.1	19.9	21.2		20.6		20.0		19.6		19.8
Colombia	23.6		23.3		23.1		23.8		24.2		26.4	26.3	26.9	28.2	28.6	25.1		25.0		24.3		22.0		22.6
Costa Rica	11.6		11.6		11.7		11.5		11.4		13.7	13.3	13.7	13.2	13.7	13.4		13.0		13.6		13.1		13.9
Czech Republic	19.1		19.2		18.7		18.0		17.5		12.1	12.5	12.6	12.6	12.4	11.1		11.4		10.5		10.3		10.4
Denmark	12.0		11.9		11.9		12.1		11.9		10.9	10.9	10.8	11.0	10.8	11.5		11.5		11.4		12.4		12.8
Estonia	13.2		13.1		12.9		12.5		12.2		10.0	10.1	10.0	10.0	10.0	15.6	⁶	15.7	⁶	15.4	⁶	15.6	⁶	16.2	⁶
Finland	13.7		13.6		13.5		13.1		13.4		8.9	8.9	8.8	8.6	8.5	18.2		18.9		17.5		17.3		16.9
France	19.4		19.1		18.7		18.4		18.3		14.4	14.4	14.5	14.6	14.5	11.3		11.2		11.2		11.3		11.3
Germany	15.4		15.3		15.1		14.9		14.8		13.2	13.0	12.9	12.8	12.8	12.7		12.6		12.4		12.2		12.1
Greece	---		9.2		8.7		8.4		8.0		---	7.9	7.9	8.0	7.8	---		9.4		9.8		9.2		9.1
Hungary	10.8		10.2		10.0		10.0		10.3		10.4	11.0	11.3	11.4	11.3	11.5		11.9		11.5		11.5		10.2
Iceland	11.1		11.0		10.7		10.5		10.2		10.1	10.1	9.9	10.0	9.8	---		---		---		---		---
Ireland	15.7		15.3		15.1		14.9		14.3		---	---	---	---	---	13.4		12.9		12.8		11.9		12.4	²
Israel	15.2		15.4		15.1		15.0		14.6		11.3	11.1	12.9	17.8	11.6	9.6		9.9		---		---		---
Italy	11.7		11.5		11.4		11.2		11.0		11.0	11.0	10.9	10.8	10.7	10.4	⁶	10.4	⁶	10.3	⁶	10.1	⁶	10.1	⁶
Japan	16.4		16.2		15.9		15.6		15.3		13.3	13.0	12.9	12.7	12.7	11.8	⁶	11.7	⁶	11.6	⁶	11.4	⁶	11.3	⁶
Korea, Republic of	16.4		16.5		16.6		16.3		16.1		14.0	13.5	13.0	13.1	13.3	13.2		12.2		11.4		10.9		10.7
Latvia	12.1		12.0		12.0		12.1		12.3		8.4	8.6	8.9	9.4	9.6	10.4		10.7		11.1		11.5		11.8
Lithuania	10.6		11.2		14.5		14.2		14.2		7.3	7.6	9.7	10.0	10.0	8.0		8.0		9.4		9.2		9.5
Luxembourg	9.0		9.0		9.0		8.9		9.0		10.9	10.7	---	---	10.1	9.9		9.5		9.2	²	8.7	²	9.5
Mexico	26.6		26.4		24.4		24.3		24.1		34.0	33.5	31.6	30.7	29.7	23.0		22.2		22.5		22.7		21.9
Netherlands	16.7		16.4		16.4		16.3		16.2		16.1	16.1	16.0	15.9	15.7	18.0		17.6		17.7		17.5		17.4
New Zealand	16.9		16.8		16.4		16.4		16.4		16.6	16.5	16.2	16.5	16.6	12.7		12.5		12.4		12.5		12.3
Norway	10.2		10.1		10.4		10.1		10.0		9.4	8.9	9.7	8.7	8.0	10.1		10.2		10.7		10.5		10.5
Poland	10.7		9.6		9.6		10.2		11.6		9.5	11.4	10.4	10.8	9.9	10.0		9.6		9.7		11.5		11.3
Portugal	12.7		12.4		12.3		12.1		11.9		9.8	9.4	9.1	8.8	9.0	9.2	⁶	9.0	⁶	9.2	⁶	8.9	⁶	10.5	⁶
Slovak Republic	17.4		17.5		17.4		17.5		17.4		12.4	12.5	12.7	12.8	12.9	13.6		13.5		13.4		13.4		13.3
Slovenia	14.5		10.3	⁵	10.6	⁵	10.3	⁵	10.3	⁵	6.0	---	---	---	---	14.1		13.7		14.0		13.6		13.4
Spain	13.6		13.6		13.6		13.3		12.2		11.8	11.9	11.7	11.5	10.8	10.7		10.5		10.4		10.4		10.3
Sweden	12.8		13.6		13.0		13.1		13.0		12.2	11.1	11.2	11.3	11.3	13.3		13.6		13.0		13.1		13.4
Switzerland	15.3		15.2		15.1		15.1		14.9		11.7	11.6	11.6	11.7	11.6	12.3	⁶	12.2	⁶	12.2	⁶	12.2	⁶	12.2	⁶
Türkiye	17.0		17.2		17.5		17.1		17.4		16.5	15.9	15.3	14.7	13.7	12.9		12.3		11.5		11.2		12.7
United Kingdom	16.9		19.9		19.9		19.6		19.2		15.2	15.9	16.2	16.7	16.6	17.2		18.0	⁷	18.2	⁷	18.5	⁷	18.4	⁷
United States	15.2		15.2		15.2		15.0		14.1		15.3	15.2	15.2	15.0	15.0	15.4		15.1		15.1		15.0		15.3
Other reporting countries
Brazil	24.3		23.9		23.9		23.6		23.4		25.0	24.9	24.8	24.6	24.6	24.1		23.7		22.8		23.3		23.5
Bulgaria	15.3		13.7		12.5		11.2		10.4		12.5	11.4	11.2	10.8	10.5	12.4		13.0		12.5		12.1		12.1
China	16.6		16.4		16.4		---		---		12.3	12.3	12.6	---	---	14.7		14.5		14.2		---		---
Croatia	14.0		13.7		13.4		13.0		12.2		8.6	8.5	8.5	8.2	8.1	8.6		8.1		7.9		8.0		8.2
Romania	19.4		19.5		19.4		19.2		18.7		12.1	11.6	11.5	11.4	11.1	13.7		13.6		13.4		13.5		13.6
---Not available.
¹The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) average refers to the mean of data values for all reporting OECD countries, to which each country reporting data contributes equally. The average includes all current OECD countries for which a given year's data are available, even if they were not members of OECD in that year.
²Junior high school data are included with the senior high school data.
³Includes only general programs; data on vocational programs are not available.
⁴Preprimary data are included with the elementary school data.
⁵Junior high school data are included with the elementary school data.
⁶Includes data for part of the postsecondary nontertiary education.
⁷Includes data for vocational programs at all levels.
NOTE: The pupil/teacher ratio is the number of full-time-equivalent students divided by the number of full-time-equivalent teachers, including teachers for students with disabilities and other special teachers. All data in this table were calculated using International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) 2011. In this table, elementary school corresponds to ISCED 2011 level 1 (U.S. grades 1 through 6), junior high school corresponds to ISCED 2011 level 2 (U.S. grades 7 through 9), and senior high school corresponds to ISCED 2011 level 3 (U.S. grades 10 through 12). Data are collected for the school year ending in the reported year for each country. For example, for reported year 2021, the reference period is school year 2020-2021 for Northern Hemisphere countries and 2021 for Southern Hemisphere countries. For more information on the school year reported by OECD countries, see Annex Table X1.3 here: https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/e13bef63-en/1/3/6/1/index.html?itemId=/content/publication/e13bef63-en&_csp_=a4f4b3d408c9dd70d167f10de61b8717&itemIGO=oecd&itemContentType=book#tablegrp-d1e34329-d661fe93c8. Some data have been revised from previously published figures.
SOURCE: Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), Online Education Database, retrieved September 28, 2023, from https://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx. (This table was prepared November 2023).

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