Tertiary education gross enrolment ratio
Students enrolled in tertiary education (ISCED levels 5 to 8), of any age, as a percentage of the population in the five-year age group that follows the official secondary school leaving age. UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
A gross ratio: students outside the reference ages and students from abroad are counted, so it can exceed 100%. It counts students, not graduates; for degree holders in the United States see bachelors_degree_share.
Key facts
- Tertiary education gross enrolment ratio in the World was 43.6% in 2024, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Tertiary education gross enrolment ratio in the United States was 79.4% in 2022, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Greece had the highest tertiary education gross enrolment ratio of 133 countries in 2020, at 143.7%, and Malawi the lowest, at 2.4%. Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Published for 204 places, with figures from 1970 to 2025.
Rankings
Countries by tertiary education gross enrolment ratio, 2020
Places with data
World, EU and euro area
Countries
- India
- China
- United States
- Indonesia
- Pakistan
- Nigeria
- Brazil
- Bangladesh
- Russia
- Ethiopia
- Denmark
- Sri Lanka
- Slovakia
- Barbados
- Djibouti
- Cambodia
Use this data in your AI agent
Invokely serves this figure to AI assistants through MCP and to code through a REST API, with the source and citation attached. Ask your assistant:
Which places have the highest tertiary education gross enrolment ratio? Use official data and cite it.
rank_places {"indicator":"tertiary_enrolment_gross","level":"country"}
GET https://invokely.ai/api/v1/rank?indicator=tertiary_enrolment_gross&level=country