5. How many adults participate in education and training?

Raising participation in adult education and training is a key objective of the EU education and training 2020 strategy and has carried over to the post-2020 policy cycle. The EU average target for 2020 was at least 15% of the adult population aged 25 to 64 participating in education and training in the last 4 weeks prior to the interview. The indicator below originates from the EU Labour Force Survey. 

Adults’ participation in education and training- last 4 weeks (%)

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

Key points

Between 2015 and 2019, the EU average level slightly increased from an initial 10.1% up to 10.8%, well below the target. In 2020, when the Covid-19 pandemic first affected the EU, participation dropped to 9.2%. However in 2020, some countries had high participation in adult education and training, notably Finland (27.3%), Denmark (20.0%), Netherlands (18.8%), Estonia (17.1%) and Luxembourg (16.3%). The lowest shares - below 3% - were in Romania (1.0%), Bulgaria (1.6%) and Slovakia (2.8%). Compared to 2015, 2020 participation rates increased by more than one percentage point in Estonia, Spain and Finland.  

Table 5. Adults’ participation in education and training- last 4 weeks (%) 

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