Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union

E2: Environmental statistics and accounts; sustainable development

e-mail contact : ESTAT-SDI-EU2020-INDICATORS@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 ensuring inclusive and quality education for all.

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. Achieving universal literacy and numeracy and acquiring knowledge and skills to promote sustainable development are also considered crucial for empowering people to live independent, healthy and sustainable lives.

Indicator is also included as secondary indicator in the Social Scoreboard for the European Pillar of Social Rights.

In 2016, the European Commission launched the New Skills Agenda for Europe. In December 2016 the Council adopted a Recommendation ‘Upskilling Pathways: new opportunities for adults’, under which Member States agreed to improve their adult learning provision to specifically address the needs of low-skilled, low-qualified adults. Reducing underachievement is also a target of the ET 2020 framework

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), which is 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.

All EU MS

Data are presented for all EU Member States plus Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, Switzerland, Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Turkey, Russia, United States, Japan and South Korea

All EU MS

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

> 10 years

Presented time series start in 2000 (reading), 2003 (mathematics) and 2006 (science).

> 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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