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Tertiary education up, early school leavers down

Apr 11, 2013 | News

(11 April 2013) – The share of population aged 30 to 34 in the EU27 having completed tertiary education was up to 36% and the share of early leavers from education and training was down to 13% in 2012.

The highest proportions of those aged 30 to 34 having completed tertiary education were found in Ireland (51.1%), Cyprus (49.9%), Luxembourg (49.6%) and Lithuania (48.7%), and the lowest in Italy (21.7%), Romania (21.8%) and Malta (22.4%).

The proportion of those aged 30 to 34 who had completed tertiary education increased compared with 2005 in all Member States. The proportion in particular almost doubled in Latvia (from 18.5% in 2005 to 37.0% in 2012), the Czech Republic (13.0% and 25.6%) and Romania (11.4% and 21.8%).

In 2012, the lowest proportions of the population aged 18-24 who had at most lower secondary education and were currently not in further education or training were observed in Slovenia (4.4%), Slovakia (5.3%), the Czech Republic (5.5%) and Poland (5.7%), and the highest in Spain (24.9%), Malta (22.6%) and Portugal (20.8%).

The share of early leavers from education and training decreased compared with 2005 in all Member States, except Poland and the United Kingdom. The most notable decrease was registered in Portugal (from 38.8% in 2005 to 20.8% in 2012).

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