UIS time series with education data since 1970

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has released new time series with education data for the years since 1970. Until this release, most indicators in the UIS Data Centre only had data for 1999 and later years, except for literacy, for which the UIS offered data for the period since 1975. The historical data are compliant with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) of 1997 and therefore comparable with existing post-1998 data in the UIS Data Centre.

With the new release, the UIS now offers data for the past 40 years for the following indicators:

• Entry age and duration of pre-primary, primary and secondary education
• School age population of pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary age
• Enrolment in pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education
• Gross enrolment ratio (GER) for pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education
• Net enrolment rate (NER) for primary education
• New entrants to primary education
• Gross intake ratio for primary education
• Repeaters in primary and secondary education
• Gross intake rate to the last grade of primary education
• School life expectancy
• Teaching staff in pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education
• Pupil/teacher ratio in pre-primary, primary and secondary education

As an example for the expanded coverage, Figure 1 shows the gross enrolment ratio in primary education for China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and the United States, the five countries with the largest population of primary school age in 2010, for the period 1970-2009. Figure 2 shows how school life expectancy evolved in these countries over the same period.

Figure 1: Gross enrolment ratio (GER) in primary education, 1970-2009

Source: UIS Data Centre, February 2011

Figure 2: School life expectancy, primary to tertiary education, 1970-2009

Source: UIS Data Centre, February 2011

The time series can be retrieved from the UIS Data Centre, under "Predefined Tables" and "Education". Data for the years 1970 to 1998 are in Tables 21 to 26, and data for 1999 and following years are in Tables 1 to 20H.

As an example, the primary GER in Figure 1 is available in Tables 5 (for 1970-1998) and 23 (for 1999-2009). To create a complete time series for 1970-2009, the data from Tables 5 and 23 must be merged after download from the Data Centre. Data on school life expectancy are in Tables 8 and 22.

Related articles

• Trends in adult literacy, 1990-2008
• Children out of school: Global trend 1999-2008
• Global Education Digest 2010
• UNESCO releases data from 2008 education survey
• Review of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)

External links

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS Data Centre
• Official announcement of data release by UIS

Friedrich Huebler, 27 February 2011, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2011/02/hist.html