Considering the following population subgroups: native-born, persons born in another European Union (EU) Member State and persons born outside of the EU, in 2018, the highest proportion of people in the EU aged 25-54 having completed at most lower secondary education (i.e. having attained only pre-primary, primary or lower secondary education) was observed among persons born outside of the EU (35%).
This share was 17 percentage points (pp) higher than for the native-born population and 14 pp higher than for persons born in another EU Member State.
The proportions were reversed for educational attainment at the level of upper secondary and post-secondary non-tertiary education, at 47% for the native-born population, 13 pp higher than for persons born outside of the EU and 5 pp higher than for persons born elsewhere in the EU.
At the level of tertiary education, persons born in another EU Member State recorded the highest share of such graduates (37%). This proportion was 1 pp higher than for the native-born population and 6 pp higher than for the non-EU-born population.
In 2018, the share of women in the EU aged 25-54 with a tertiary level of educational attainment was higher than the share for men across all of the following population subgroups: native-born, persons born in another EU Member State and persons born outside of the EU. The biggest gender gap was recorded for the native-born population, where the share of women with a tertiary level of education stood at 39% compared with 32% for men (a gap of 7 pp), while this gender gap stood at 6 pp between persons born elsewhere in the EU and 2 pp between persons born outside the EU.
On the contrary, for the two lower levels of educational attainment (upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary level of education and at most a lower secondary level of education) for all three population subgroups the share of males was higher than females.
The source dataset can be found here.
These figures are taken from the latest results of the EU labour force survey.
Further information on education-related migrant integration statistics can be found in this Statistics Explained article.
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