Tertiary education enrolment (gross)
Gross enrollment ratio is the ratio of total enrollment, regardless of age, to the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the level of education shown. Tertiary education, whether or not to an advanced research qualification, normally requires, as a minimum condition of admission, the successful completion of education at the secondary level.
Tertiary education enrolment (gross)
% gross enrolment · 2000–2026
Compare up to three countries. Remove one below to make room for another.
Showing selected countries and up to 12 suggestions. Search by name or code across 217 countries and economies.Selected window: 2000–2026. Solid: observed · Dashed: estimate/projection · Dotted: source status unclassified · Diamond: 2026.
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How to read this chart
Unclassified means the provider did not supply an explicit observation/estimate flag. It does not mean the value is unreliable. Source or methodology changes can affect trends across editions.
Countries publish data on different schedules. A shorter line or a gap means the source has no value for that country and year. Missing values are not zero. Only separately sourced official estimates or projections may fill gaps; we do not invent intermediate values. Use Table to inspect individual years.
The source-check date tells you when we retrieved the data, not the year it describes. Use the observation year when citing a value.
Gross education ratios can exceed 100% because the numerator can include students outside the official age group used in the denominator.
Compare the same definition and period. Differences are descriptive, not causal. National measurement methods may differ; crude rates are not age-standardised. Missing uncertainty intervals in this feed do not mean an estimate is exact.
At the same point in time
Latest comparable common year within this selection: 2022.
United States minus Portugal: 4.29 percentage points.
Japan minus Portugal: -11.7 percentage points.
Calculated by World in Stats from the named source values. Differences are not causal effects.Where did these numbers come from?
- Dataset
- World Development Indicators
- Original indicator
- SE.TER.ENRR · Original source
- Data providers
- Data API, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), uri: https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources, note: The data are obtained through the UIS API. Detailed documentation is available at: https://api.uis.unesco.org/api/public/documentation/, publisher: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), type: Bulk file (csv), date accessed: 2026-03-19, date published: 2026-02
- Source dataset update
- 8 October 2026
- Retrieved
- 13 October 2026
- Publication date
- Not supplied separately by the API
- Definition
- Gross enrollment ratio is the ratio of total enrollment, regardless of age, to the population of the age group that officially corresponds to the level of education shown. Tertiary education, whether or not to an advanced research qualification, normally requires, as a minimum condition of admission, the successful completion of education at the secondary level.
- Unit
- % gross enrolment
- Transformations
- None. Display values may be rounded; CSV retains source precision.
- Licence & attribution
- Data API, UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), uri: https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources, note: The data are obtained through the UIS API. Detailed documentation is available at: https://api.uis.unesco.org/api/public/documentation/, publisher: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), type: Bulk file (csv), date accessed: 2026-03-19, date published: 2026-02. Source attribution and terms. No endorsement implied.
- Verification
- Exact API query · Indicator metadata
Interpreting this indicator
Gross tertiary enrolment uses a reference age group even though students can be much older or younger. It does not measure the proportion of all adults with a degree, graduation rates or the quality of universities.
Understand percentages, rates and uncertainty
Data availability varies by country and year. Compare the same definition and time period. Revisions may change historical observations; these values belong to the snapshot retrieved on 13 October 2026.
This feed does not supply uncertainty intervals for these observations. No ranking or causal explanation is inferred.