Over the last year, the COVID-19 pandemic forced schools to adapt their teaching methods in order to slow down the spread of the virus. Many schools were fully or partially closed, with lessons moved from classrooms to home learning.
How many pupils and students in primary and secondary education were affected? The most recent available official data are from 2019, when there were 15.6 million children in early childhood education in the EU. In primary education, typically starting at ages 5 to 7 years old and lasting around six years, there were 24.5 million pupils enrolled.
Secondary education is divided into lower and upper levels. In 2019, 18.3 million students were enrolled in lower secondary education, with students typically entering when they are 10 to 13 years old and typically finishing nine years after the start of primary education when they are 15 to 16 years old.
Finally, there were 17.6 million students in upper secondary education in 2019, covering both general studies and vocational studies. Upper secondary education typically ends 12 to 13 years after the students began their primary education.
Altogether, there were almost 76 million pupils and students enrolled in schools and pre-schools in the EU across all of these education levels.
Source dataset: educ_uoe_enra02
This information comes from data on education enrolments published by Eurostat today.
For more information:
- Eurostat website section dedicated to education and training statistics
- Eurostat database of education and training statistics
- Data by levels of education are classified according to ISCED 2011. The figures presented refer to pupils and students enrolled at early childhood education (ISCED level 0), at primary level (ISCED level 1), at lower secondary level (ISCED level 2) and at upper secondary level (ISCED level 3).
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