EDUCATION INDICATORS: An International Perspective

Indicator 3: Secondary Education Enrollment

The end point of compulsory education typically occurs during secondary education, and this event influences the percentage of students of a particular age cohort enrolled in secondary education. Secondary education enrollment also reflects the desirability and importance of secondary-level credentials. Secondary education enrollment rates for some countries may be higher than those for others because certain programs offered at higher levels of education in other countries are offered at the secondary level.

Sidebar: The structure of upper secondary education

Sidebar: Strategies for preparing youth employment

In 1992, enrollment in secondary education was nearly universal for 14- and 15-year-olds in the G_7 countries for which data were available and in the other countries reported, with the exception of Hungary, Poland, and Turkey.
Secondary enrollment dropped off at different ages in different countries. In the United States, the largest decline occurred between ages 17 and 18, from 72 to 21 percent. The rate declined as early as age 15 in Russia and age 16 in the United Kingdom, whereas several countries had a sizable percentage of 19-year-olds still enrolled in secondary education. For example, more than half of 19-year-olds in the former West Germany were enrolled in secondary education.

Table 3: Enrollment in all public and private secondary education /1 /2, by age and country: 1992 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

			         Percent enrolled by single year of age 
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Country			14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21
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G-7 /3
Canada			99.8	98.7	96.3	72.0	36.9	11.1	14.0	0.0
France			94.3	94.1	92.1	87.2	58.6	34.0	12.0	3.1
West Germany (former)	93.9	93.1	95.3	92.8	82.3	55.0	29.3	16.0
Japan			101.6	96.8	95.1	90.3	1.8	-	-	-
United Kingdom		99.6	98.9	75.3	55.3	18.7	4.3	1.9	1.2
United States		98.7	95.7	91.4	72.0	20.6	5.8	1.7	0.6
Other	
Belgium			98.9	98.7	97.2	93.6	49.8	25.1	10.6	4.4
Czech Republic		106.4	90.2	86.9	39.4	0.0	0.0	0.0	0.0
Denmark			93.4	97.8	92.4	80.1	68.9	48.4	28.3	16.3
Finland			99.8	99.8	94.5	85.8	79.7	26.8	16.5	15.3
Greece			94.2	86.1	88.4	62.1	19.4	10.5	4.7	3.1
Hungary			88.7	84.4	75.2	45.4	12.2	3.9	1.4	0.0
Ireland			97.6	94.3	87.5	70.2	33.1	11.5	7.0	3.6
Netherlands		98.7	99.0	97.3	90.8	67.9	42.3	25.4	14.7
New Zealand		98.9	96.7	87.8	65.7	20.8	5.9	2.4	1.7
Norway			99.4	99.3	92.8	86.6	77.2	34.6	17.6	11.9
Poland			1.4	81.6	85.1	81.6	49.8	17.3	5.8	-
Russia			95.1	59.6	47.7	8.4	0.1	-	-	-
Spain			100.4	91.0	75.6	66.9	35.5	20.7	17.2	10.6
Sweden			99.7	95.6	89.2	87.0	59.6	11.5	2.7	1.7
Switzerland		98.3	95.8	85.2	82.0	74.2	48.9	20.6	8.2
Turkey			47.5	45.9	39.3	33.9	19.8	9.7	6.0	0.0
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-Not available.
1/ Full-time equivalent.
2/ Enrollment rates that exceed 100 reflect measurement error.
3/ No data available for Italy.

NOTE: See supplemental note to Indicator 3 for details on indicator calculation for the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and the Unites States, for an explanation of the calculation of full-time equivalent enrollments, and for information on the calculation of enrollment rates.

SOURCE: Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Center for Educational Research and Innovation, International Indicators Project, 1995.

Figure 3: Percentage enrolled in secondary education, by age and G-7 country /*: 1992

* No data available for Italy.

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

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