Education in Europe Statistics 2026

Only 44.1% of EU adults aged 25–34 held a tertiary qualification in 2024—just 0.9 percentage points short of the bloc’s 2030 target. This article covers the latest data on education attainment, public spending, early school leaving, dropout rates, graduate employment, and adult learning participation across European countries, drawing on Eurostat, the OECD, and the European Commission’s 2025 monitoring reports.

• Ireland had the EU’s highest tertiary attainment rate among 25–34-year-olds in 2024, at 65.2%.
• Romania recorded the lowest public education spending in the EU at 2.89% of GDP, versus Sweden’s 6.86%.
• Spain cut its early school leaving rate by 8.9 percentage points over the decade, the second-largest reduction in the EU.
• The Netherlands had a 32.2% dropout rate from formal education, the highest in the EU, according to the 2024 Labour Force Survey.
• Adult participation in education and training across the EU stood at 28.1% in 2024, roughly half the 2030 target of 60%.

Europe Education Statistics by Country: Tertiary Attainment in 2024

The EU’s 2030 goal requires at least 45% of 25–34-year-olds to hold a tertiary qualification. The bloc reached 44.1% in 2024, up from 36.5% in 2015. Ten member states have already passed the 50% mark.

Ireland led the EU at 65.2%. Romania was the only country where the rate fell over the past decade, dropping 2.3 percentage points to 23.2%.

Source: European Commission Education and Training Monitor 2025; Eurostat EU Labour Force Survey 2024

The Gender Gap in Tertiary Education

Women aged 25–34 held tertiary qualifications at 49.8% in 2024, against 38.6% for men—an 11.2 percentage point gap that has widened slightly since 2015. In Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, and Slovenia, the gap exceeds 20 percentage points.

OECD data show a similar pattern across member countries: 55% of women aged 25–34 hold a tertiary degree versus 42% of men.

Source: OECD Education at a Glance 2025

Europe Education Statistics on Public Spending

EU member states spent an average of 4.6% of GDP on public education in 2022, down 0.3 percentage points from the year before. The 2023 average recovered marginally to 4.7%. More than four percentage points separated Sweden from Romania.

Primary and lower secondary education absorbed the largest share of total EU education budgets at 40.6%, followed by tertiary at 26.3% and upper secondary at 21.6%.

Source: Eurostat Educational Expenditure Statistics 2025

Government financial aid to tertiary students varies sharply. Denmark provided €8,024 per student annually, while Greece and Croatia each spent under €100 per student.

Early School Leaving Rates in Europe

Early leavers—defined as 18–24-year-olds with at most a lower secondary qualification who are not in education or training—numbered roughly 3.1 million across the EU in 2024, a rate of 9.3%. The 2030 target is below 9%.

Spain reduced its rate by 8.9 percentage points since 2014 to reach 13.0%, though it still sits above the EU average. Germany’s rate rose over the same period to 12.4%. Eight countries, including Cyprus and Lithuania, recorded increases since 2015.

Source: Eurostat Early Leavers from Education and Training Statistics 2024

Young men leave school early at 10.9%, compared with 7.7% for young women. Of those classified as early leavers in 2024, only 47.3% were employed. Another 30.1% were out of work and looking for a job, and 22.6% had withdrawn from the labour market entirely.

Source: Eurostat Early Leavers Statistics 2024

Education Dropout Rates in EU Countries

The 2024 EU Labour Force Survey asked adults aged 15–34 whether they had ever left a formal education programme before completing it. The EU average was 14.2%, but country-level figures ranged from 1.5% to 32.2%.

The Netherlands recorded the highest dropout rate at 32.2%, partly attributed to the country’s flexible system and frequent programme switching. Romania had the lowest at 1.5%, a figure that reflects limited initial enrolment rather than strong retention.

Source: Eurostat Dropout Module, December 2025

Financial barriers account for only 5.3% of dropout reasons across the EU on average. But in Bulgaria, 30% of those who left cited financial constraints. In Romania, the figure was 22%.

Graduate Employment and Return on Education in Europe

Workers with a tertiary degree earned about 52% more than those who completed only upper secondary education in 2024. Unemployment among tertiary graduates aged 25–34 stood at 5.2%, against 15.2% for those with lower secondary qualifications or below.

Source: European Commission Education and Training Monitor 2025

Among recent tertiary graduates aged 20–34 who finished within the past three years, 84.9% were in employment. The Netherlands (92.7%), Germany (91.9%), and Norway (92.3%) all exceeded 90%.

PISA 2022 data incorporated into the Commission’s 2025 investment analysis show that 48% of EU students from the lowest socioeconomic quarter underachieved in mathematics, compared to 11% from the top quarter—a 37 percentage point gap across the same school systems.

Source: European Commission, Investing in Education 2025; Euronews, October 2025

Adult Learning Participation Rates in Europe

The EU’s 2030 target for adult participation in education and training is 60%. The 2024 rate, measured over a 12-month reference period, reached only 28.1%—roughly half that figure.

Nordic countries lead by a wide margin. Sweden’s Stockholm region recorded 64.0% adult participation, the highest of any EU region. Bulgaria’s Yuzhen tsentralen region recorded 2.2%.

Source: European Commission Education and Training Monitor 2025; Eurostat Adult Learning Statistics

Women participated at slightly higher rates (29.0%) than men (27.3%). Among unemployed adults, only 15.3% reported any recent learning—below the EU’s own 2025 interim target of 20%.

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