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E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact: ESTAT-SDG-MONITORING@ec.europa.eu

The indicator is part of the EU Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) indicator set. It is used to monitor progress towards SDG 4 on quality education, which is embedded in the European Commission’s Priorities under 'A Europe fit for a digital age', 'An economy that works for people' and 'Promoting our European way of life'.

SDG 4 seeks to ensure people have access to equitable and quality education through all stages of life, from early childhood education and care, through primary and secondary schooling, to technical, vocational training and tertiary education.

The Council of the European Union on 26 February 2021 adopted the Resolution on a strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training towards the European Education Area and beyond (2021–2030), a framework that addresses five strategic priorities: (1) Improving quality, equity, inclusion and success for all in education and training; (2) Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality for all; (3) Enhancing competences and motivation in the education profession; (4) Reinforcing European higher education; and (5) Supporting green and digital transitions in and through education and training.

The Council Resolution sets the EU target for the share of low-achieving 15-year-olds in reading, mathematics and science as measured by this SDG indicator to be less than 15% by 2030. Indicator is also included as a secondary indicator in the Social Scoreboard for the European Pillar of Social Rights.

The indicator measures the share of 15-year-old students failing to reach level 2 (‘basic skills level’) on the PISA scale for the three core school subjects of reading, mathematics and science. The data stem from the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA), a triennial international survey which aims to evaluate education systems by testing the skills and knowledge of 15-year-old students.

% of 15-year-old students

Calendar year

Indicator from non-ESS source. For assessment of accuracy please refer to the original source (see link to external data source and metadata in section “Annexes”).

OECD (PISA)

Data source: Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA)

Data provider: Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Every 3+ years

Indicator is updated every 3 years.

> T+2 years

New data points are disseminated within two years after the reference year.

> 75% EU MS and EU aggregate

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtensteirn, Norway, Switzerland, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Albania, Serbia, Türkiye, Russia (untill 2022), the United States, Japan and South Korea. For 2022 results, data for Luxembourg are absent for all three educational areas.

All EU MS

Data are comparable between all EU Member States respectively other presented countries.

5 to 10 years

Presented time series start in 2000; EU aggregates are reported since 2006.

> 4 data points

Length of comparable time series without methodological break is more than 4 data points.

Analysis of indicator is presented in Eurostat's annual monitoring report on Sustainable development in the EU (progress towards SDGs in the EU context).

see table  sdg_04_40

Eurostat dedicated section on SDGs: http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/web/sdi/overview

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