Education data highlights

Explore a list of useful statistics on education by theme, both globally and for GPE partner countries.

Global data on why education is a good investment
Global data on the missed opportunities due to the lack of education
Data for GPE partner countries

COVID-19 and education

  • Learning losses from missed in-person schooling amounting to 2 trillion hours of lost learning.
    Source: UNICEF, 2022
  • On June 1st 2020, GPE doubled its COVID-19 emergency funding window to US$500 million to help lower-income countries mitigate both the immediate and long-term impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on education.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • More than 80% of the 66 accelerated grants to help countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 included initiatives that targeted children with disabilities to ensure learning continuity.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • On April 1st 2020, just three weeks after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, GPE unlocked US$250 million to help 67 lower-income countries mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on education.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • On March 25, 2020, GPE provided US$8.8 million to UNICEF to kickstart education systems’ response to COVID-19 in 87 lower-income countries.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • COVID-19 education grants have provided over $35 million across GPE partner countries to help teachers adapt to new distance learning methods.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Globally, 72% of countries (146 of 204) have included teachers in one of several priority groups to be vaccinated.
    Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.1
  • Content for remote learning was provided to teachers by 58% of all countries ranging from 81% in Europe and Northern America to just 29% in sub-Saharan Africa.
    Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.7
  • Globally 40% of countries trained three quarters or more of teachers on distance learning methods including various forms of ICT in 2020, ranging from 65% of countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to just 8% in sub-Saharan Africa.
    Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.8
  • School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to reduce the learning-adjusted years of education across developing regions by roughly a third to a full year.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.2
  • The global learning loss is equivalent to 0.7 year of lost learning, which could translate into an annual reduction of 6.5% in the future earnings of current students once engaged in a job, as a result of lower productivity due to fewer cognitive skills. This reduction in earnings prospects could contract national income growth by 2.2% each year of working life (45 years on average) of the generation hit by the pandemic.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.2
  • Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 6 out of 10 students in low and middle-income countries could not read and understand simple texts by age 10. Now, 7 out of 10 cannot read (due to the impact of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic).
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.18
  • Without adequate remediation, learning loss will likely translate into a huge negative impact on the global economy - up to a 0.68 percentage point reduction of GDP growth cannot read (due to the impact of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic).
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.18
  • In early 2021, fewer than 10% of low-income countries reported having sufficient soap, clean water, masks, and sanitation and hygiene facilities to assure the safety of all learners and staff, compared with 96 per cent in high-income countries.
    Source: The sustainable development goals report 2023. p.21
  • One in four primary schools globally lacks basic services like electricity, water, sanitation, and handwashing facilities.
    Source: The sustainable development goals report 2023. p.21
  • 41% of lower income countries reduced their spending on education after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with an average decline in spending of 13.5%.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.4
  • Global learning losses from COVID-19 could cost this generation of students close to US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings, which far exceeds the original estimate of US$10 trillion made immediately after the pandemic outbreak and even the US$17 trillion estimated in 2021 (Azevedo et al. 2022).
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.4
  • Total global education spending over the last 10 years before COVID-19 increased steadily, from US$4 trillion in 2010 to US$4.9 trillion in 2018, and then stagnated with the onset of the pandemic.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.10
  • An estimated 24 million learners may never see the inside of a classroom again because of COVID-19, with girls, children from poor families, and children with disabilities facing the greatest risks.
    Source: UNESCO, 2020
  • 88% of low-income countries and 76% of lower-middle-income countries received development assistance to cover COVID-related costs in education (UNESCO, UNICEF, and World Bank 2020).
    Source: Education finance watch 2021. P12
  • 20 million more secondary school girls could be out of school following the pandemic.
    Source: Malala Fund
  • Due to pandemic-related disruptions in prevention programs, 2 million cases of female genital mutilation could occur over the next decade that would otherwise have been averted.
    Source: UNFPA, April 2020
  • 13 million girls could be forced into early marriage as their parents grapple with the economic fallout of COVID-19.
    Source: World Bank, 2020
  • Before the pandemic, over 50% of the world’s children left primary school without even the most basic reading skills. An estimated 70% of children now face this harsh reality.
    Source: The World Bank, UNESCO and UNICEF, The State of the Global Education Crisis: A Path to Recovery. 2021, P.5
  • Only 15 countries are offering distance instruction in more than one language.
    Source: The impact of COVID-19 on children. UN Policy Brief, April 2020, p. 8
  • At the peak of school closures, 1.6 billion learners were out of school, with 810 million in low-income countries.
    Source: UNESCO
  • Between 119 and 124 million people may be pushed into extreme poverty due to the pandemic.
    Source: World Bank, 2021

Gender equality

Education in crisis situations

  • Each year of education reduces the risk of conflict by around 20%.
    Source: World Bank. Doing well out of war (Paul Collier), 1999 , p. 5
  • Children in fragile, conflict-affected countries are more than twice as likely to be out of school compared with those in countries not affected by conflict; similarly, adolescents are more than two-thirds more likely to be out of school.
    Source: GEM Report, Policy Paper 21, June 2015, p.2
  • 68.3% of children completed primary school in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict in 2020 compared to 66% in 2013.
    Source: GPE Results Report 2022, p.90
  • 63% of GPE implementation grants were allocated to partner countries affected by fragility and conflict in 2021 compared to 44% in 2012.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • In GPE countries affected by fragility and conflict, the number of girls completing school for every 100 boys rose from 74 to 88 for primary, and from 67 to 83 for lower-secondary between 2002 and 2015.
    Source: GPE estimate based on UIS data

Inclusive education

  • 66.7% of partner countries reported key education statistics disaggregated by children with disabilities.
    Source: GPE results report 2022, p.7
  • In 2022, 62,163 children with disabilities were supported through 17 grants that reported these data.
    Source: GPE results report 2022, p.72
  • 69% of partner countries are at or close to gender parity in primary completion.
    Source: GPE results report 2021, p.36
  • Out of 35 countries with active grants in 2018, 34 mention disability, special needs, or inclusive education in education sector analyses and plans.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Almost 40% of partner countries provide pre-service or in-service teacher training on inclusive education.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • One third of GPE partner countries plans to build new schools or renovate existing schools to make them accessible for children with disabilities.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Globally, the share of schools with adapted infrastructure and materials for students with disabilities increased at all levels of education, and most significantly in upper secondary from 46% in 2015 to 56% in 2020.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.8
  • Approximately one billion people in the world are living with a disability, with at least 1 in 10 being children and 80% living in lower-income countries.
    Source: World Report on Disability
  • Between 93 million and 150 million children are estimated to live with disabilities.
    Source: EFA GMR 2015, p.100
  • The literacy rate for adults with disabilities is 3%. For women with disabilities the literacy rate is even lower, at 1%
    Source: UNGEI. Still left behind: Pathways to inclusive education for girls with disabilities, 2017. p.12

Early childhood education

Learning and literacy

  • In 2017, the UIS estimates that more than 617 million (or six out of ten) children and adolescents of primary and lower secondary school age do not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and mathematics.
    Source: UIS Fact Sheet N°48, February 2018 p.12
  • $328 million were invested in activities to improve learning in FY 2022.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • 70% of partner countries with available data saw improvements in learning outcomes between 2010–15 and 2016–19.
    Source: GPE results report 2021. p.26
  • 89% of grants supported EMIS and/or learning assessment systems in 2020.
    Source: GPE results report 2021. p.6
  • 56 million textbooks have been distributed in GPE partner countries thanks to the support of GPE grants in fiscal year 2022.
    Source: GPE results report 2022. p.71
  • The proportion of implementation grants supporting learning assessment systems increased from 67% in 2016 to 83% in 2020.
    Source: GPE results report 2021. p.7
  • 74% of active implementation grants in fiscal year 2022 invested in activities related to learning assessments.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • US$775 million in GPE funding was allocated to activities designed to improve learning, representing 36% of GPE implementation funding approved between 2016 and 2020.
    Source: GPE results report 2021. p.26
  • 78% of active implementation grants in fiscal year 2020 invested in activities related to learning assessments.
    Source: GPE results report 2021. p.26
  • A change of 1% in learning is associated with a change of 7.2% in annual growth.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.4
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, the youth literacy rate has increased from 66% in 2000 to 77.5% in 2020.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.7
  • In Central and Southern Asia, the youth literacy rate increased from 87% in 2000 to 91% in 2015 but has only increased by 0.8 percentage points since then.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.7
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, although 80% of primary-aged children are enrolled in school, only 62% graduate on time.
    Source: The sustainable development goals report 2023. p.20
  • Globally, the percentage of children one year younger than the official primary entry age who participate in organized learning programs, has remained stable at about 75% between 2015 and 2020.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.4
  • Of the 31 low- and lower-middle-income countries for which there are data since 2019, only Vietnam has a majority of children achieving minimum proficiency in both reading and mathematics at the end of primary school. By contrast, in 18 of these countries, fewer than 10% of children are reaching minimum proficiency in reading and/or in mathematics.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.2
  • Only 14 countries representing 15% of the school-age population in Africa have at least two data points on minimum learning proficiency that would allow the long-term trend to be estimated.
    Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.43
  • Since 2015, only 19 countries in reading and 18 countries in mathematics have reported data from school surveys.
    Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.43
  • According to household survey data, the proportion of grade 2 students with foundational reading skills is near zero in many countries.
    Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.43
  • In 16 out of 22 sub-Saharan countries, at most one third of students are taught in the language they speak outside of school.
    Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.79
  • PASEC and SACMEQ data found that having their own textbook can increase a child’s literacy scores by up to 20%.
    Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.79
  • In 10 out of 14 participating francophone countries in PASEC 2019, reading scores of students with a female head teacher were significantly better than those of students with a male head teacher.
    Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.115
  • The global youth literacy rate is 91%, meaning 102 million youth lack basic literacy skills.
    Source: Meeting commitments: are countries on track to achieve SDG 4? 2019, p.9
  • The number of illiterate youth fell from 107 million in 2015 to 99 million in 2020, of which 36 million were in Central and Southern Asia and 49 million were in sub-Saharan Africa. Women are 56% of all illiterate youth.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.7
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, only 64% of primary and 50% of secondary school teachers have the minimum required training, and this proportion has been declining since 2000.
    Source: Meeting commitments: are countries on track to achieve SDG 4? 2019 p.9
  • On current trends, by 2030 more than half of all school-aged children will not master basic secondary-level skills including key competencies such as literacy, numeracy, problem-solving, and critical thinking. Learning loss due to COVID-19-related school closures may worsen this trend.
    Source: Brookings, 2019
  • More than 80% of the 617 million children and adolescents who are not learning enough to meet minimum proficiency levels come from low- and lower-middle-income countries, although these countries are home to only 60% of the global school-age population.
    Source: UIS Fact Sheet N°48, February 2018 p.12
  • Globally, two-thirds of children – 68% or 262 million out of 387 million – are in school and will reach the last grade of primary but will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading. About 60% or 137 million adolescents are in school but not learning.
    Source: UIS Fact Sheet 46, p.10
  • 91% of primary school-age children in low-income countries will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading and the rate is 87% in math compared to 5% and 8% respectively in high-income countries.
    Source: UIS Fact Sheet 46, p.16
  • 93% of secondary school-age adolescents in low-income countries will not achieve minimum proficiency levels in reading compared to 27% in high-income countries.
    Source: UIS Fact Sheet 46, p.11
  • Low- and middle-income countries spend 2% of their GDP each year on education costs that do not lead to learning.
    Source: The Learning Generation, executive summary, p. 7
  • 771 million adults lack basic literacy skills (women account for two thirds).
    Source: UIS
  • Almost one in four youth in sub-Saharan Africa are illiterate.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.8

Quality teaching

  • By 2030, countries must recruit 69 million teachers to provide every child with primary and secondary education: 24.4 million primary school teachers and 44.4 million secondary school teachers.
    Source: UIS factsheet #39, October 2016, p.1
  • 67 million more children have access to quality teachers since 2002.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Nearly 1.6 million teachers were trained under GPE grants between FY16 and FY20
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • 39% of partner countries had fewer than 40 students per trained teacher in 2020, compared to 25% in 2015.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • 91% of GPE implementation grants active in FY22 included support for teachers and teaching-related activities, such as in-service training, pre-service training, teacher coaching and mentoring, teacher management, and teaching tools such as teachers’ guides and other pedagogical resources. This amounts to a combined total of more than $528 million.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • More than 675,000 teachers were trained with GPE funding in FY 2022, compared to 98,000 in 2014.
    Source : GPE Results Report 2022. p.71
  • 77% primary teachers had minimum required qualifications.
    Source : GPE Results Report 2022. p.7
  • At the primary level, 76% of teachers meet their national minimum qualification standards across partner countries, with little to no difference by gender.
    Source : GPE Results Report 2022. p.36
  • Across GPE partner countries, 58% of pre-primary teachers, 79% of primary teachers, and 71% of lower and upper secondary teachers have the required minimum qualifications. Even with minimum qualifications, many teachers’ pedagogical and content knowledge is low.
    Source: GPE Secretariat based on UIS data
  • 72% of primary teachers and 65% of lower-secondary teachers received pre-or in-service training in partner countries in 2017.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • COVID-19 education grants have provided over $35 million across GPE partner countries to help teachers adapt to new distance learning methods.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Teaching according to learning level with technology support for one year can improve learning by 0.27 standard deviation, which has the potential to increase students’ future earnings by 5.5% while yielding US$1,724 in future benefits per beneficiary at a student cost per year of US$26.6.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.20
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, the proportion of teachers with the minimum required qualifications – or, more specifically, who have received at least the minimum organized pedagogical teacher training pre-service and in-service – at the pre-primary level increased from 53% in 2015 to 60% in 2020.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.9
  • Globally, 83% of primary and the same proportion of secondary teachers hold the minimum required qualifications. In primary, this proportion ranges from 98% in South-East Asia to 67% in sub-Saharan Africa, while in secondary, it ranges from 97% in Central Asia to 61% in sub-Saharan Africa.
    Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.4
  • The percentage of trained teachers in primary education has remained almost stagnant at 86%.
    Source: SDG 4 mid-term progress review, 2023, p.2
  • In 2020, more than 14% of teachers were still not qualified according to national norms, with considerable disparities between countries and across regions.
    Source: The sustainable development goals report 2023. p.21
  • Sub-Saharan Africa faces the biggest challenge, with the lowest percentages of trained teachers in pre-primary (60%), primary (69%) and secondary education (61%) among all regions.
    Source: The sustainable development goals report 2023. p.21
  • On average, there are 56 school children per trained teacher in sub-Saharan Africa.
    Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.101
  • The global average pupil/trained teacher ratio (PTTR) in primary education was 27:1 ranging from 56:1 in sub-Saharan Africa to 17:1 in Europe.
    Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.5
  • Sub-Saharan Africa will need to recruit 11.2 million primary and secondary teachers by 2025 based on increasing school-age populations and replacements due to teacher attrition. This gap will widen to 15 million teachers needed by 2030.
    Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.3
  • Of the 24.4 million teachers needed for universal primary education, 21 million will replace teachers who leave the workforce. The remaining 3.4 million, however, are additional teachers who are needed to expand access to school and support education quality by reducing the numbers of children in each class to a maximum of 40.
    Source: UIS factsheet #39, October 2016, p. 1
  • Teacher shortages are most acute in sub-Saharan Africa, where 70% of countries face shortages at primary level and 90% of countries at secondary level.
    Source: ISU, 2016
  • Countries with more female primary teachers are more likely to have higher enrollment rates for girls in secondary schools. Unfortunately, in some countries, less than 25% of primary teachers are female.
    Source: UNESCO eAtlas of Teachers

Domestic financing

  • 71% of partner countries increased their share of education expenditure or maintained it at 20% or above.
    Source: GPE results report 2022, p.7
  • GPE partner countries (43 with data) allocated 18.6% of their budget for education in 2021.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Government per capita spending on education was on average nearly 150 times higher in high-income countries than in low-income countries.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.11
  • Governmental spending on education as a percentage of GDP fell from 76% of countries reviewed in July 2022 to just 66% in July 2023.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.3
  • The global total real expenditure on education, combining spending by governments, official development assistance, and households, inched upwards in 2021 to US$5.4 trillion after two consecutive years at US$5.3 trillion.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.6
  • The annual average total budget in sub-Saharan African countries is expected to increase from 3.4% of GDP in 2023 to 4% by 2027 and 4.6% by 2030.
    Source: GEMR Policy Paper 49. June 2023. p.7
  • Government resources remain the main education funding source in all country income groups. More than three-quarters (78%) of global education spending in 2021 stemmed from government spending net of official development assistance contributions, which increased by 2% from 2020 in real terms.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.6
  • In low-income countries, government education spending as a share of GDP has increased steadily since 2018 (3.2%), reaching an average of 3.6% in 2021.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.8
  • South Asia showed the largest increase with per-capita government spending on education going up 54% over the decade.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.10
  • In most decentralized countries, subnational governments account for over 50% of total public education spending.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.23
  • Education spending in low- and lower-middle-income countries would need to increase from 3.5% to 6.3% of GDP between 2012 and 2030 to deliver universal pre-primary, primary and secondary education.
    Source: Education finance watch 2021. P5
  • It is estimated that global education expenditure is over US$5 trillion. Public expenditure on education is significant; on average, countries spend about 4.5% to 5% of GDP on education, except for low-income countries.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.19
  • Public education expenditure has remained constant at about 4.2% of GDP but the proportion of lower-income countries either in or at high risk of debt distress rose from 27% to 58%.
    Source: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. 2023, p.2
  • Aid to education increased from $13.7 billion to $17.8 billion but decreased by 7% from 2020 to 2021, while the share of aid allocated to education in aid budgets reached its lowest point since 2015, with only 9.8% dedicated to the sector in 2021.
    Source: SDG 4 mid-term progress review.2023, p.2
  • To achieve national SDG 4 benchmarks, 79 low- and lower-middle income countries still face an average annual financing gap of $97 billion.
    Source: The sustainable development goals report 2023. p.20
  • The cost of achieving universal pre-primary, primary and secondary education by 2030 in low- and lower-middle-income countries would cost a cumulative $5.1 trillion, equivalent to about $340 billion per year from 2015 to 2030.
    Source: GEMR Policy Paper 49. June 2023. p.1
  • Sub-Saharan African countries account for the largest share of the financing gap: $70 billion per year on average.
    Source: GEMR Policy Paper 49. June 2023. p.7
  • One in three countries spend less than 4% of their GDP and less than 15% of their budget on education.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.3
  • Three-fifths of education resources in low-income and lower middle-income countries come from domestic public expenditure, primarily supplemented by private household expenditures.
    Source: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on education financing, May 2020
  • Families spend significant portions of their funds on education; more than 1/3 of total education spending in low- and lower-middle-income countries is from households.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.3
  • Despite the proportional increase in low-income countries government spending on education, official development assistance for education continues to be important in low-income countries, accounting for 13% of the total.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.6
  • About 40% of low- and lower-middle-income countries spend below international benchmarks for public education spending.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.7
  • In sub-Saharan Africa, households account for 38% of total education spending, ranging from less than 5% in Ethiopia, Lesotho and Sao Tome and Principe to more than 67% in Ghana, Liberia and Nigeria.
    Source: UNESCO. 2022. Spotlight Report on Basic Education Completion and Foundational Learning in Africa, Paris, UNESCO. p.145
  • In 2018–19, low-income countries spent approximately US$48 per school-aged child compared to US$8,501 in high-income countries.
    Source: Education finance watch 2021. P5