Information on data

Eurostat statistics on participation in education and training cover data on students enrolled and entrants to formal education and training systems, adult participation in formal, non-formal and informal learning activities as well as vocational training within enterprises.

Pupils and students – enrolments 

This database folder provides data on the number of pupils and students who are enrolled in formal education programmes.

Data are expressed in absolute numbers, as participation rates, and out-of-school rates. They are available broken down by:

• education level, starting at early childhood education up to tertiary education
• demographic characteristics, such as sex and age
• type of educational institution (public or private)
• intensity of participation (full-time, part-time or full-time equivalent)
• programme orientation (general/academic or vocational/professional)
• type of vocational programme (school-based or combined school and work-based)
• level of attainment that can be achieved upon programme completion
• field of education

The statistics come from the annual UNESCO-UIS-OECD-Eurostat data collection, which is obtained from administrative sources.

Pupils and students – entrants 

This database folder provides data on new entrants to education levels and programme orientations within a level, meaning general or vocational. New entrants are defined as students who enter an education programme for the first time during the course of the reference school or academic year. 

Data are expressed in absolute numbers. They are available broken down by:

• level of education
• programme orientation 
• sex 
• age
• field of education

The statistics come from the annual UNESCO-UIS-OECD-Eurostat data collection, which is obtained from administrative sources.

Adult learning 

Adult learning refers to the participation of adults in lifelong learning. It usually means learning activities after the end of the initial education. In this context, adults are people aged 25 years or older. Data on adult learning are available from: 

• the EU labour force survey (EU-LFS), which provides annual data on participation in education and training in the last 4 weeks for those aged 15 to 74 as well as data on participation in education and training in the last 12 months (available every 2 years as of 2022). Various breakdowns are available such as age, sex, educational attainment level, labour status, region, country of birth or citizenship
• the adult education survey (AES), which provides every 5 to 6 years data on participation in education and training in the last 12 months. AES does not only provide participation rates with various breakdowns, but also information on the characteristics of the learning activities, time spent in learning, or obstacles. AES also collects data on participation in informal learning.

For information on the differences between the data available from these sources, please consult our  information note.

Continuing vocational training in enterprises

This database folder provides information on enterprises’ investment in the continuing vocational training of their staff. A wide range of aspects of CVT is covered: 

• provision of CVT
• strategies
• participants
• costs and time spent 
• characteristics and assessment of CVT activities. 

Some information on initial vocational training is also available. Indicators are broken down by economic sector or enterprise size class.

The statistics come from the continuing vocational training survey (CVTS).

This database folder provides data on:

• degree mobile students
• degree mobile graduates 
• credit mobile graduates

Degree mobile students or graduates are tertiary students/graduates who have received a leaving certificate of their upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary programme in a country different from the one where their institution of tertiary degree study/graduation is located. Degree mobile students are referred to as ‘mobile students’ in the database. 

Credit mobile graduates are graduates who have had a temporary tertiary education study period and/or work placement abroad, usually for the purpose of gaining academic credit that will be recognised in the institution of enrolment. 

Data are expressed in absolute numbers as well as in the form of indicators, such as the share of students who are mobile. They are available broken down by:

• level of education 
• sex
• field of education 
• country of origin 

For credit mobile graduates, data is also available by:

• type of mobility scheme, meaning credit mobility under EU programmes or in other international/national programmes
• type of mobility, study period or work placement
• country of destination

The statistics come from the annual UNESCO-UIS-OECD-Eurostat data collection, which is obtained from administrative sources.
 

This database folder provides data on:

• classroom teachers
• teacher aides
• academic staff
• school-management personnel

Teachers are employed in a professional capacity to guide and direct the learning experiences of students, irrespective of their training, qualifications or delivery mechanism. 

Teacher aides support teachers in providing instruction to students. 

Academic staff are personnel employed at the tertiary level of education whose primary assignment is instruction and/or research. 

School management personnel covers professional personnel who are responsible for school management/administration.

Data are expressed in absolute numbers as well as in the form of indicators such as pupil-teacher ratios. They are available broken down by:

• education level
• programme orientation (general/academic or vocational/professional)
• demographic characteristics such as sex and age or age group
• type of institution (public or private) – referred to as ‘sector’ in the database
• employment status (part-time, full-time, full-time equivalent)

The statistics come from the annual UNESCO-UIS-OECD-Eurostat data collection, which is obtained from administrative sources. 
 

This database folder provides data on:

• expenditure on education
• expenditure of educational institutions 
• enrolments adjusted to statistics on educational finance and aligned to the financial year

Education finance statistics allow for an analysis of the amount of funds educational institutions receive and how these are spent. They measure expenditure from all sources - regardless the financial mechanisms that are in place - on goods and services related to formal education programmes. 

Data are expressed in million units of national currency, euro, and purchasing power standards; as percentages of GDP, GNI and public expenditure; and in the form of indicators such as expenditure per pupil:

They are available broken down by:

• education level
• programme orientation (general/academic or vocational/professional)
• type of source, for example general government, households
• recipient of funding, meaning public or private educational institutions, households
• for expenditure on education the expenditure category, such as direct expenditure, expenditure on ancillary services, capital expenditure, student loans 
• for expenditure on/of educational institutions the expenditure category, such as current expenditure for example compensation of personnel, capital expenditure or expenditure on ancillary services – referred to as ‘expenditure and investment’ in the database

The statistics come from the annual UNESCO-UIS-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) data collection, which is obtained from administrative sources. 
 

This database folder provides data on:

• graduates from formal education and training systems 
• educational attainment levels of the population
• indicators on the transition from education to work, which are used as measures for education and training outcomes

Graduates

This database folder provides data on graduates and first-time graduates.

Graduates are persons who, during the reference school or academic year, have successfully completed a formal education programme. 

First-time graduates at a given level of education are persons who, during the reference school or academic year, have successfully completed an education programme at the given level for the first time. In formal education, a successful completion usually results in a qualification which is recognised by the relevant national education authorities. 

For graduates and first-time graduates, data are expressed in absolute numbers as well as in the form of indicators, such as the percentage of women in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). They are available broken down by:

• education level
• programme orientation (general/academic or vocational/professional)
• demographic characteristics such as sex and age
• level of attainment (for example insufficient for level completion or partial level completion, sufficient for partial level completion without direct access to tertiary education)
• field of education, including the aggregate of STEM fields 

The statistics come from the annual UNESCO-UIS-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) data collection which is obtained from administrative sources.

Educational attainment level

This database folder provides information on the population by the highest level of education successfully completed. Data is available for various breakdowns such as by: 

• level and orientation of the educational attainment
• sex
• age
• labour status
• work experience while studying
• region
• country of birth or citizenship

For employees, further breakdowns, such as occupation, employment status or size of local unit, are available.

The statistics come from the EU labour force survey.

Transition from education to work

In this database folder, the following indicators are available:

• NEET - young people neither in employment nor in education and training
• early leavers from education and training
• employment rates of recent graduates

Low achieving 15-year-old students (PISA survey)

This 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. Data are provided by the OECD.

Language learning 

This database folder provides data on pupils and students learning modern foreign languages in primary and secondary education. 

Data are expressed in absolute numbers, and in the form of indicators such as the percentage of pupils studying at least 1 foreign language, They are available broken down by:

• education level
• programme orientation (general or vocational)
• modern foreign language studied
• number of modern foreign languages studied (no languages, 1 language, 1 language or more, 2 languages or more)

The statistics come from the annual UNESCO-UIS-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) collection which is obtained from administrative sources.

Self-reported language skills

Statistics on the knowledge of foreign languages is self-reported by the respondents and is categorised in three levels. The labels displayed in the datasets correspond to the following self-reported knowledge:

• Basic: I can understand and use the most common everyday expressions. I use the language in relation to familiar things and situations;
• Good: I can understand the essential of clear language and produce simple text. I can describe experiences and events and communicate fairly fluently;
• Proficient: I can understand a wide range of demanding texts and use the language flexibly. I master the language almost completely.

The statistics are based on the adult education survey (AES). In the 2007 and 2016 AES, a 4th ‘very basic’ level was included in the questionnaire: ‘I only understand and can use a few words’. In the datasets, this category is included under ‘basic’.

This database folder provides statistics on formal education, using ISCED 1997, for non-finance education data up to reference year 2012 and for education finance data until 2011. 

For fields of education, the 1999 version of international standard classification of education fields of education and training (ISCED-F 1999) was applied.

The statistics come from the annual UNESCO-UIS-OECD-Eurostat (UOE) data collection which is obtained from administrative sources.