Archive:Enlargement countries - education statistics

Data extracted in September 2016. Most recent data: Further Eurostat information, Main tables and Database. Planned article update: October 2017.

This article is part of an online publication and provides information on a range of education statistics for the enlargement countries, in other words the candidate countries and potential candidates. Montenegro, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Albania, Serbia and Turkey currently have candidate status, while Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo^[1] are potential candidates.

The article gives an overview of education developments in these seven countries, presenting an analysis of the different educational levels in terms of enrolment, educational attainment and tertiary education.

Table 1: Number of pupils and students by education level, 2015 (¹)
(thousand)
Source: Eurostat (educ_ilev) and (cpc_pseduc)

Figure 1: Early leavers from education and training among those aged 18–24 years, 2015 (¹)
(% of male / female 18–24 year olds)
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_14) and (cpc_pseduc)

Table 2: Upper secondary and tertiary educational attainment among those aged 20–24 years, 2005, 2010 and 2015 (¹)
(% of 20–24 year olds)
Source: Eurostat (edat_lfse_9903) and (cpc_siinr)

Figure 2: Average rate of change for the number of students in tertiary education, 2010–2015 (¹)
(% per year)
Source: Eurostat (educ_enrl1tl) and (cpc_pseduc)

Figure 3: Proportion of 30–34 year olds having completed tertiary or equivalent education, 2015 (¹)
(%)
Source: Eurostat (tsdsc480) and (cpc_pseduc)

Figure 4: Tertiary graduates in science and technology among those aged 20–29 years, 2012 (¹)
(per 1 000 male / female inhabitants aged 20–29)
Source: Eurostat (educ_itertc) and (cpc_scienc)

Main statistical findings

Number of pupils and students

In 2012, there were 109 million pupils and students in the EU-28 across all forms of education from pre-primary to tertiary^[2]. In the enlargement countries, there were approximately 28 million pupils and students enrolled (see Table 1 for the latest period available for each country); this was equivalent to just over one quarter of the total number of pupils and students within education in the EU-28.

While the absolute number of pupils is closely linked to the size and structure of populations, there are a range of other factors that influence how long pupils remain in the education system, such as the length of compulsory schooling, opportunities in the labour market and the availability and cost of tertiary education. In recent years, policy interest has focused on encouraging young persons to remain within the educational system so they may develop skills and gain qualifications that may help in the search for work in an increasingly knowledge-driven economy.

Within the EU-28, some 18.6 % of the overall number of pupils and students in 2012 were attending tertiary education establishments (as covered by ISCED level 5 and ISCED level 6; based on the 1997 version of this classification). Across the enlargement countries the share of tertiary students was generally close to the EU-28 average, as all but two countries lay within the range of 17.4 % (the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia) to 21.4 % (Albania) in 2015; Kosovo (24.1 %) and Turkey (27.6 %) were the only countries to record higher shares.

Early leavers from education and training

Montenegro and Serbia reported a high proportion of students remaining within the education system

In 2015, the proportion of early leavers from education and training (the share of persons aged 18–24 who finished no more than a lower secondary education and were not involved in further education or training) stood at 12.4 % in the EU-28 among men and 9.5 % among women (see Figure 1). There were lower proportions of early leavers from education and training in Serbia and in Montenegro, while the proportions in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were of a similar magnitude to those in the EU-28, although with higher shares for women than for men. By contrast, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey recorded much higher proportions of early leavers from education and training than in the EU-28, peaking in Turkey at 35.4 % for men and 37.9 % for women.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina the proportion of men who were early leavers from education and training was considerably higher than the corresponding share for women, with a difference of 8.8 percentage points. In Albania and Serbia, the proportion of early leavers was somewhat higher for men than for women, as it was in the EU-28. Elsewhere among the enlargement countries shown in Figure 1 the proportion of early leavers was higher among women than among men, with this gender gap reaching 2.9 percentage points in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Youth education attainment

High levels of youth educational attainment in most enlargement countries

An alternative measure for analysing the outcomes of education systems is the youth education attainment level. This indicator is defined as the proportion of 20–24 year olds who have achieved at least an upper secondary level of education attainment (as defined by ISCED level 3).

In 2015, the share of the EU-28 population with at least an upper secondary level of education stood at 82.7 %, with a higher rate for women (85.0 %) than for men (80.4 %). The overall youth education attainment level in the EU-28 rose by 5.1 percentage points between 2005 and 2015. Compared with the EU, there were four enlargement countries which reported a higher proportion of persons aged 20–24 having attained at least an upper secondary level of education. This was particularly the case in Bosnia and Herzegovina (93.8 %), Montenegro (93.4 %) and Serbia (91.4 %), as well as in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (86.4 %; 2013 data). A considerably lower level of youth educational attainment was recorded in Turkey (53.5 %) — see Table 2.

Although a time series is only available for some of the enlargement countries it can be noted that the proportion of persons aged 20–24 having attained at least an upper secondary level of education rose in all of them between 2005 and 2015, most notably in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (2006–2013) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (2006–2015), while the (percentage points) increase for Turkey between 2005 and 2015 was also higher than that recorded in the EU-28.

Within the EU-28 the gender gap in youth education attainment levels showed levels for women in 2015 were 4.6 percentage points higher than for men. Serbia also reported higher proportions for women, while in Montenegro and Turkey, the proportions for men and women were almost equal. Bosnia and Herzegovina recorded a higher youth educational attainment for men (compared with women), as did the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia where the gap reached 3.9 percentage points (2014 data).

Tertiary education

Figure 2 shows the annual average growth rate of students in tertiary education (ISCED levels 5 and 6) between 2010 and 2015. The number of tertiary students in the EU-28 rose, on average, by 0.6 % per year (between 2010 and 2012). There was a small reduction in the number of students in tertiary education in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Montenegro and a modest expansion in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (where the same rate of change as in the EU-28 was recorded, 0.6 % per year). By contrast, growth in the number of tertiary students was at a faster pace than the EU-28 average in each of the three remaining enlargement countries (no data for Kosovo). Turkey recorded the fastest annual average growth, its number of tertiary students increasing on average by 11.9 % per year during the period 2010–2015, while the average rate of change was 5.6 % per year in Albania.

Less than one fifth of the population aged 30–34 had completed a tertiary level of education in Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina

Figure 3 shows the proportion of 30–34 year olds who had completed a tertiary level of education. Within the EU-28, this ratio reached more than one third (38.7 %) of this subpopulation by 2015. All of the enlargement countries for which data are available (no data for Kosovo) reported lower proportions of 30–34 year olds having completed a tertiary level of education in 2015, ranging from less than one fifth in Albania (2012 data) and Bosnia and Herzegovina, to more than a quarter in Serbia (2014 data) and close to one third in Montenegro (where the highest proportion was recorded, 31.0 % in 2015).

Relatively high proportion of women graduating from science and technology disciplines in Serbia

There has been considerable focus on differences between subjects that are studied by men and women at university. Figure 4 shows that across the EU-28 population aged 20–29 in 2012, the proportion of men with a science or technology degree (22.9 per 1 000 male inhabitants) was approximately twice as high as the corresponding ratio for women (11.2 per 1 000 female inhabitants).

In all of the enlargement countries for which data are available (no data for Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina or Kosovo), the proportion of men having graduated from a science or technology discipline was lower than in the EU-28, peaking in Serbia at 17.3 graduates per 1 000 male inhabitants aged 20–29 in 2014. By contrast, Serbia stood out as its proportion of women having graduated from a science or technology discipline — 12.1 per 1 000 female inhabitants in 2014 — was higher than the EU-28 average (11.2 per 1 000 female inhabitants); each of the remaining enlargement countries recorded ratios for female tertiary graduates in science and technology that were below the EU-28 average.

Data sources and availability

Data for the enlargement countries are collected for a wide range of indicators each year through a questionnaire that is sent by Eurostat to partner countries which have either the status of being candidate countries or potential candidates. A network of contacts in each country has been established for updating these questionnaires, generally within the national statistical offices, but potentially including representatives of other data-producing organisations (for example, central banks or government ministries). The statistics shown in this article are made available free-of-charge on Eurostat’s website, together with a wide range of other socio-economic indicators collected as part of this initiative.

Education statistics cover a range of subjects, including: expenditure, personnel, participation and attainment. The standards for international statistics on education are set by three organisations:

the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) institute for statistics (UIS);
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD);
Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union (EU).

The main source of data for the EU-28 aggregate is a joint UNESCO/OECD/Eurostat (UOE) questionnaire on education systems and this is the basis for the core components of the Eurostat database on education statistics; Eurostat also collects data on regional enrolments and foreign language learning. EU-28 data on educational attainment are mainly provided through household surveys, in particular the EU labour force survey (LFS).

Note that the collection of data on education is currently undergoing a considerable change as a result of the introduction of a new version of ISCED. Longer time series are generally available on the basis of ISCED 1997 up to and including 2012, while (at the time of writing) data on the basis of ISCED 2011 are generally available for the 2013 and 2014 reference periods (LFS data are available for the 2015 reference period).

Tables in this article use the following notation:

Value in italics	data value is forecasted, provisional or estimated and is therefore likely to change;
:	not available, confidential or unreliable value.

Context

Each EU Member State is responsible for its own education and training systems. As such, EU policy in this area is designed to support national action and address common challenges, by providing a forum for exchanging best practices. Through the strategic framework for European cooperation in education and training (known as ET 2020), which was adopted by the Council in May 2009, EU Member States identified four common objectives for 2020: making lifelong learning and mobility a reality; improving the quality and efficiency of education and training; promoting equity, social cohesion, and active citizenship; and enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship, at all levels of education and training. The strategy sets a number of benchmarks in relation to education that are to be achieved in the EU-28 by 2020, including:

at least 95 % of children between the age of four and the age for starting compulsory primary education should participate in early childhood education;
the share of early leavers from education and training should be less than 10 %;
the share of low-achieving 15-year olds in reading, mathematics and science should be less than 15 %;
the share of 30–34 year olds with tertiary educational attainment should be at least 40 %.

While basic principles and institutional frameworks for producing statistics are already in place, the enlargement countries are expected to increase progressively the volume and quality of their data and to transmit these data to Eurostat in the context of the EU enlargement process. EU standards in the field of statistics require the existence of a statistical infrastructure based on principles such as professional independence, impartiality, relevance, confidentiality of individual data and easy access to official statistics; they cover methodology, classifications and standards for production.

Eurostat has the responsibility to ensure that statistical production of the enlargement countries complies with the EU acquis in the field of statistics. To do so, Eurostat supports the national statistical offices and other producers of official statistics through a range of initiatives, such as pilot surveys, training courses, traineeships, study visits, workshops and seminars, and participation in meetings within the European statistical system (ESS). The ultimate goal is the provision of harmonised, high-quality data that conforms to European and international standards.

Additional information on statistical cooperation with the enlargement countries is provided here.

Further Eurostat information

Publications

Basic figures on enlargement countries — 2015 edition
Key figures on the enlargement countries — 2014 edition
Key figures on the enlargement countries — 2013 edition

Database

Candidate countries and potential candidates (cpc), see:

Population and social conditions (cpc_ps)

Candidate countries and potential candidates: education (cpc_pseduc)

Education and training (edtr), see:

Participation in education and training (educ_part)

Pupils and students — enrolments (educ_uoe_enrp)

Education and training outcomes (educ_outc)

Educational attainment level (edat)

Population by educational attainment level (edat1)

Transition from education to work (edatt)

Early leavers from education and training (edatt1)

Education administrative data until 2012 (ISCED 1997) (educ_uoe_h)

Education indicators — non-finance (educ_indic)

Distribution of pupils/ students by level (educ_ilev)

Tertiary education graduates (educ_itertc)

Enrolments, graduates, entrants, personnel and language learning — absolute numbers (educ_isced97)

Students by ISCED level, age and sex (educ_enrl1tl)

External links

Notes

↑ This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.
↑ Note: there was a change in the classification used for education statistics from 2013 onwards with a move from ISCED 1997 to ISCED 2011; the latest information available for the EU-28 shows there were an estimated 105 million pupils and students in 2014, excluding early childhood educational development (ISCED 2011 level 01) and excluding information for Denmark, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom for post-secondary non-tertiary education (ISCED 2011 level 4).

[1] This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo Declaration of Independence.

[2] Note: there was a change in the classification used for education statistics from 2013 onwards with a move from ISCED 1997 to ISCED 2011; the latest information available for the EU-28 shows there were an estimated 105 million pupils and students in 2014, excluding early childhood educational development (ISCED 2011 level 01) and excluding information for Denmark, Greece, Croatia, Slovenia and the United Kingdom for post-secondary non-tertiary education (ISCED 2011 level 4).

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