Country rankings
Tertiary Education Attainment by Country
Norway has the highest Tertiary Education (age 25-34) in 2024 (98.7%), followed by Hungary (92.9%) and Netherlands (92.1%). South Africa has the lowest (35.5%).
40 of 235 countries
Tertiary Education (age 25-34), 2024
Darker green is better (higher is better). Click a place to highlight it.
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All 40 ranked
Best first.
Distribution Median and middle halfThe median is the middle value: half of places are above it, half below. The middle half is the range holding the central 50% of places.More in the glossary →
Each dot is one country; the lines mark the median and the middle half.
Median
88.0%
Middle half 82.9% – 90.2%
Average
85.4%
40 countries
Highest
98.7%
Norway
Lowest
35.5%
South Africa
Over time · 2022–2024
The top 5 in 2024, against the median.
- Median of all countries
- Norway
- Hungary
- Netherlands
- Lithuania
- Poland
Data
Click a column to sort, a row to highlight that place on the charts.
40 countries · # = rank by Tertiary Education (age 25-34)
| # | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Norway | 98.7% | 97.0% | — | 96.3% | — | 93.2% |
| 2 |  Hungary | 92.9% | 93.0% | 92.8% | 80.5% | 87.7% | 75.9% |
| 3 |  Netherlands | 92.1% | 93.8% | 90.7% | 83.0% | 87.1% | 78.5% |
| 4 |  Lithuania | 92.0% | 93.6% | 90.7% | 81.5% | 79.2% | 82.5% |
| 5 |  Poland | 91.8% | 95.3% | 89.4% | 75.0% | 82.5% | 70.2% |
| 5 |  Romania | 91.8% | 94.3% | 89.8% | 73.2% | 73.3% | 73.1% |
| 7 |  Japan | 90.8% | 93.3% | 87.8% | 84.9% | 90.0% | 72.1% |
| 8 |  Australia | 90.5% | 94.3% | 87.7% | 77.8% | 80.9% | 75.0% |
| 8 |  Switzerland | 90.5% | 92.3% | 88.8% | 83.5% | 87.1% | 78.4% |
| 10 |  New Zealand | 90.3% | 93.1% | 88.2% | 84.5% | 87.6% | 81.8% |
| 11 |  Slovenia | 90.2% | 93.5% | 88.0% | 75.9% | 79.9% | 73.0% |
| 12 |  United Kingdom | 90.1% | 92.7% | 87.9% | 71.2% | 74.7% | 67.8% |
| 13 |  Ireland | 90.0% | 92.5% | 87.9% | 76.1% | 80.3% | 72.6% |
| 14 |  Bulgaria | 89.9% | 91.9% | 88.5% | 83.3% | 84.6% | 82.4% |
| 15 |  Portugal | 88.8% | 89.0% | 88.7% | 85.0% | 85.5% | 84.6% |
| 16 |  Germany | 88.6% | 91.8% | 85.7% | 83.7% | 85.8% | 80.5% |
| 16 |  Belgium | 88.6% | 89.1% | 88.3% | 77.2% | 83.1% | 71.6% |
| 18 |  Latvia | 88.5% | 93.1% | 85.6% | 83.5% | 82.9% | 83.8% |
| 19 |  Finland | 88.2% | 89.7% | 87.1% | 81.7% | 80.5% | 82.6% |
| 19 |  Estonia | 88.2% | 95.0% | 83.9% | 86.2% | 83.3% | 87.7% |
| 21 |  France | 87.7% | 89.5% | 86.2% | 74.6% | 77.5% | 72.1% |
| 21 |  Luxembourg | 87.7% | 89.4% | 86.2% | 64.9% | 69.0% | 60.2% |
| 23 |  Sweden | 87.2% | 89.5% | 85.5% | 84.2% | 84.9% | 83.7% |
| 23 |  Denmark | 87.2% | 89.7% | 85.2% | 83.3% | 86.3% | 80.9% |
| 25 |  Canada | 86.0% | 88.0% | 84.4% | 68.2% | 73.6% | 63.7% |
| 25 |  Austria | 86.0% | 87.1% | 85.0% | 73.8% | 79.3% | 66.4% |
| 25 |  Slovakia | 86.0% | 90.5% | 83.1% | 83.5% | 83.3% | 83.6% |
| 28 |  Israel | 85.4% | 88.0% | 83.7% | 80.8% | 86.4% | 75.8% |
| 29 |  Croatia | 85.3% | 82.6% | 87.1% | 78.2% | 75.9% | 80.1% |
| 30 |  Mexico | 83.3% | 89.6% | 77.8% | 61.2% | 73.9% | 48.2% |
| 31 |  Spain | 81.8% | 83.2% | 80.7% | 74.5% | 78.1% | 71.1% |
| 32 |  Colombia | 81.1% | 88.2% | 75.9% | 66.0% | 77.8% | 56.1% |
| 33 |  Peru | 80.1% | 87.9% | 72.5% | 75.9% | 84.2% | 67.1% |
| 34 |  South Korea | 79.6% | 82.2% | 77.3% | 74.0% | 82.1% | 61.3% |
| 35 |  Greece | 79.0% | 81.2% | 77.4% | 67.4% | 71.0% | 64.0% |
| 36 |  Costa Rica | 78.9% | 84.8% | 73.9% | 53.7% | 57.4% | 50.0% |
| 37 |  Czechia | 77.8% | 93.9% | 66.9% | 90.1% | 91.1% | 89.2% |
| 38 |  Italy | 74.5% | 75.2% | 74.1% | 85.1% | 90.1% | 80.8% |
| 39 |  Turkey | 73.7% | 87.3% | 61.9% | 52.1% | 61.8% | 35.4% |
| 40 |  South Africa | 35.5% | 66.0% | 11.5% | 34.6% | 72.6% | 2% |
What correlates with Tertiary Education (age 25-34) (2024)?
Pearson r against 2,092 other country metrics sharing at least 24 countries. Correlation is not causation.
Higher together
Places that have a higher Tertiary Education (age 25-34) tend to score higher on these
- % of Urban Population with Access to ElectricityCountries without ElectricityPlotr = +0.84 · very strong · n = 40
- % of Total Population with Access to ElectricityCountries without ElectricityPlotr = +0.83 · very strong · n = 40
- Access to Electricity (% of People)Development Indicators by Country (World Bank)Plotr = +0.83 · very strong · n = 40
- Plot
- Plot
- Plot
Opposite directions
Places that have a higher Tertiary Education (age 25-34) tend to score lower on these
Quick answers
- Which country has the highest Tertiary Education (age 25-34)?
- Norway has the highest Tertiary Education (age 25-34) in 2024, at 98.7%, followed by Hungary (92.9%) and Netherlands (92.1%).
- Which country has the lowest Tertiary Education (age 25-34)?
- South Africa has the lowest Tertiary Education (age 25-34) in 2024, at 35.5%.
- What is the median Tertiary Education (age 25-34) across countries?
- The median is 88.0% across the 40 countries with data in 2024.
- Where does this tertiary education attainment by country data come from?
- Rankodex compiles it from World Population Review and the primary sources it cites: Data Explorer - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development; Population with tertiary education - Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.