Almost five million upper secondary school pupils in the EU received their education diplomas in 2015. Slightly more than half (51%) graduated from vocational programmes, and 49% - from general education programmes.
While more boys graduated from vocational programmes (55% of vocational education graduates), girls accounted for 56% of general secondary education graduates.
8 in 10 graduate from vocational programmes in Austria
Vocational education largely prevails in Austria, where only 19% of secondary school graduates completed a general education programme, in Croatia (28%) and the Czech Republic (29%).
With 87%, Cyprus has the largest share of graduates in the general orientation programmes. It is followed by Lithuania (84%) and Malta (82%).
Source dataset here.
Upper secondary education (ISCED level 3) begins between ages 14 and 16, ends at 17 or 18, and is typically designed to prepare for tertiary education or provide skills relevant to employment, or both.