Tertiary Education Attainment by Country 2024

The Organization for Economic and Cooperative Development (OECD) releases its results for education attainment by its participating countries each year. Tertiary education, college or higher, attainment, helps students to gain knowledge and skills to become better contributors to society.

How to Read the Tertiary Education Attainment Scores

The OECD uses percentages and age groups in its Tertiary Education Attainment (TEA) findings. These percentages compare people of each age group with their peers.

For example, in 2022, South Korea had a 69.6% score for 25 to 34-year-olds. This number indicates that almost 70% of people in that age group had completed tertiary education. In that same country, the age group of 55 to 64-year-olds only had 27.3% of its members as reporting attainment of a tertiary education.

In almost all countries evaluated, except Argentina, the younger demographic of 25 to 34-year-olds had a higher percentage of people with tertiary education compared to 55 to 64-year-olds. In Argentina, the older group had 24.9% complete tertiary education while the younger group only had 19% with the same education level.

The average percentages for tertiary education attainment for all OECD countries were 47.4% for the younger cohort and 30.3% for the older group.

How Does the OECD Determine Tertiary Education Attainment?

OECD uses information collected annually by UNESCO, OECD, and Eurostat to calculate the percentages of tertiary education attainment for OECD countries.

Nations with the Highest Tertiary Education Attainment Percentages in 2023

The most recent data for 2023 comes from the 2022 findings. South Korea had the highest percentage in 2022 for the younger group of 25 to 34-year-olds. That country had nearly 70% of people in this group attain tertiary education. Canada finished in a close second with 67% of its younger group completing tertiary education.

The remaining countries in the top five for the younger group were Japan, Ireland, and Russia, all with more than 62% of 25 to 34-year-olds finishing tertiary education.

Canada placed first in the number of people between 55 and 64 with tertiary education. In 2022, 53.2% of that group of Canadians reported having a tertiary education level or higher.

Places That had the Lowest Tertiary Education Attainment

The OECD country with the lowest percentage of tertiary education attainment in its younger group in 2022 was South Africa. This country only had 13.1% of its 25 to 34-year-olds finish tertiary education. Indonesia finished second to last with only 17.9% of younger people completing tertiary education.

Among older adults between 55 and 64, India had the lowest percentage of people with tertiary education, 6.4%.