26. How many adults have a low level of education?

Educational attainment is related to career aspects, such as the chances of being in employment and wage levels.  

The indicator reported here is defined as the share of adults (aged 25 to 64) with low education (at most a lower secondary qualification, ISCED 2 or below). 

Adults with lower level of educational attainment (%)

Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey (LFS).

Key points

In 2020, in the EU, 21.0% of adults aged 25 to 64 had a low level of education (ISCED 2 or below). The highest percentage was in Portugal (at 44.6%), followed by Malta (42.4%). The lowest percentages across EU Member States were in Lithuania, Czechia, Poland, Slovakia, Latvia, Finland, Estonia and Slovenia (below 10% in 2020). 

Between 2015 and 2020, the percentage of adults with low educational attainment fell by 2.9 percentage points in the EU overall, due to the fall in all Member States. The biggest reductions were in Malta (-11.6%) and Portugal (-10.3%). Smaller decreases were in Czechia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Austria and Slovakia (all below 2 percentage points). A break in time series for data for 2020 for Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Ireland, Netherlands and Sweden means that they cannot be reliably compared with data for 2015. Among non-EU countries, the lowest share was found in Switzerland (11.6%) and the highest in Turkey (59.3%). With relation to the ’15-’20 trends, substantial decreases were in Turkey and North Macedonia (-6.5% and -6.2%, respectively), while the lowest reduction was in Norway (-0.7%). 

Table 26. Adults with lower level of educational attainment (%)

Source: Eurostat, EU Labour Force Survey. Notes: (b) ‘break in time series’; (p) provisional’; data are not presented when they are not available and/or do not support sufficiently reliable comparisons across countries or over time.