EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective
Indicator 1: Enrolled Persons 5-29 Years Old
The number of students enrolled in formal education (except preprimary education1) per 100 persons in the population 5-29 years old provides an indication of the extent to which youth are enrolled in the education system; the percentage distribution of enrollment reflects how they are distributed across education levels. These measures are influenced by the age structure of the population 5-29 years old (i.e., the percentage in the younger portion of this age cohort) and the rate at which youth of various ages are enrolled. A high overall participation rate may reflect a high value placed on education, an economy dependent on a highly trained workforce, the availability of education institutions, or a relatively high percentage of the population 5-29 years old who are in the younger age groups that have virtually 100 percent enrollment. A high percentage of students enrolled at a particular level may reflect a relatively large cohort of the age typically attending that level or a high enrollment rate among the young people in the cohort.
Sidebar: ISCED levels of education
- In 1992, the enrollment of 5- to 29-year-olds in the G-7 countries ranged from almost 50 per 100 persons in that age range in Germany to more than 58 per 100 in France. The U.S. enrollment ratio was in the middle, at 54 per 100 5- to 29-year-olds.
- In all of the G-7 countries, approximately 60-67 percent of enrollment was in primary and lower secondary education,2 with the exception of Italy, where only 52 percent of all enrolled students were at the primary or lower secondary level. The share of enrolled 5- to 29-year-olds attending higher education ranged from 8 percent in the United Kingdom to 17 percent in Canada. The percentage of total enrollment in higher education in the United States (16 percent) neared that of Canada.
1 For the United States, preprimary includes kindergarten.
2 See the sidebar entitled ISCED levels of education for an explanation of education levels.
Table 1: Public and private enrollment /1 per 100 persons in the population 529 years of age, by country, and the percentage distribution of education enrollment, by level and country: 1992 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Percentage distribution (Total = 100.0) Enrollment per ---------------------------------------------------------- Schooling 100 persons Primary and Upper expectancy for Country (all levels) lower secondary secondary education Unclassified a 5-year-old ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- G-7 Canada 58.0 62.8 20.0 17.4 0.0 - France 58.4 61.3 21.1 15.4 2.2 15.9 Germany 49.8 62.4 22.1 15.5 0.0 - Italy 50.0 52.2 32.0 15.6 0.0 Japan 55.7 60.3 23.7 14.0 2.0 United Kingdom 51.9 67.4 24.5 8.1 0.0 14.0 United States 54.2 66.2 17.5 16.1 0.0 14.8 Other Australia 53.3 75.4 11.6 12.9 - - Austria 50.5 52.9 28.7 18.4 0.0 - Belgium 53.9 57.1 28.6 13.9 0.2 15.8 Czech Republic 51.2 63.9 29.9 6.4 0.0 - Denmark 54.9 59.4 23.7 17.1 0.0 15.6 Finland 60.8 59.2 23.7 17.1 - 15.4 Greece 50.0 67.8 22.4 9.8 0.0 13.7 Hungary 48.7 64.5 30.8 4.7 0.0 13.2 Ireland 56.4 72.0 18.6 9.0 0.5 14.6 Netherlands 54.4 63.1 23.3 13.6 0.0 16.0 New Zealand 55.6 70.5 18.7 10.6 0.0 14.6 Norway 54.6 57.3 27.7 15.0 0.0 15.6 Poland 52.6 67.5 25.5 7.0 0.0 13.0 Portugal3 47.0 72.3 19.4 8.5 8.0 - Russia 45.0 71.8 15.1 13.3 0.0 12.5 Spain 56.9 54.1 30.2 15.1 0.5 - Sweden 50.2 63.7 21.3 14.9 0.0 14.7 Switzerland 49.1 65.2 23.8 10.2 0.6 15.2 Turkey 39.7 79.3 13.6 7.1 0.0 9.4 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
-Not available.
1/ Full-time equivalent.
2/ The hypothetical duration of schooling for a 5-year-old child under
current conditions, calculated by adding the net enrollment rate for each year
of age from 5 to 29, and dividing by 100.
3/ 1991 data.
NOTE: See supplemental note to Indicator 1 for details on indicator calculation for Australia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Hungary, Italy, Japan, Norway, Sweden, and the United States and for an explanation of the calculation of full-time equivalent enrollments.
SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Center for Educational Research and Innovation, International Indicators Project, 1995.
Figure 1a: Public and private enrollment in formal education per 100 persons in the population 5_29 years of age, by G_7 country: 199
NOTE: Unclassified enrollments for France and Japan are included.
SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Center for
Educational Research and Innovation, International Indicators Project, 1995.
Figure 1b: Percentage distribution of education enrollment of 5- to 29-year-olds among levels of formal education, by G_7 country:* 1992
*Countries are
sorted in descending order by the percentage of enrollment in higher education.
SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Center for Educational Research and Innovation, International Indicators Project, 1995.
See Supplemental Notes on figure and Tables
[Participation and Student Flows]
[Indicator 2]