World Inequality Database on Education

The World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE) highlights the powerful influence of circumstances, such as wealth, gender, ethnicity and location, over which people have little control but which play an important role in shaping their opportunities for education and life. It draws attention to unacceptable levels of education inequality across countries and between groups within countries, with the aim of helping to inform policy design and public debate.

Explore disparities in education across and within countries

Compare countries

Compare groups within countries

Compare overlapping disparities

Teaser

Selecting an indicator compares disparities between countries for different groups, such as wealth, gender or location. Groups are visualized as coloured dots.

Clicking on a country shows the disparities for different groups, such as gender, wealth or location within the selected country.

Clicking on one of the groups shows overlapping disparities within countries. Combining multiple dimensions of inequality, it can compare, for example, education for rural poor women with urban rich men within a given country.

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The six Education for All goals

Goal 1: Early childhood care and education

In 10 countries more than 50% of all children have the opportunity to attend a pre-primary programme

 

Goal 2: Universal primary education

More than 50% of all children in 4 countries have never been to primary school.

Goal 3: Youth and adult learning needs

In 4 countries, more than 50% of adolescents are not in school

Goal 4: Youth and adult literacy

In 6 countries more than 50% of the youth population have less than 2 years of schooling

Goal 5: Gender parity and equality in education

 

In 10 countries, 9 out of 10 of the poorest young women have not completed primary school

 

Goal 6: Quality of education

In 8 countries fewer than two in three children are expected to complete primary school.

Indicator: Pre–primary education attendance

Early childhood is the critical period in which to lay the foundations for success in education and beyond. Yet children who would benefit most from early childhood care and education are least likely to receive it. Global progress in pre-primary education masks extremely low levels of enrolment in some countries. For example, only 4% of children in Mozambique have the opportunity to attend pre-primary education programmes. This country joins 24 others in the database having less than a quarter of children benefitting from pre-school.

Indicator: Never been to school

Major progress has been made since 2000 in enrolling children in primary school. However, progress has stalled in recent years, and children from marginalized groups continue to face significant barriers to reaching school. In Burkina Faso, 53% of children aged 7 to 16 years have never attended primary school.

Indicator: Out–of–school adolescents

Many young people lack the opportunity to participate in lower secondary school. In Honduras 56% of adolescents are not in school, denying them the opportunity to attain the foundation skills needed to get good jobs.

Indicator: Less than 2 years of schooling

Youth literacy rates are higher than ever as a result of progress in primary education. However, progress is still not fast enough with over half of young people in some countries in sub-Saharan Africa with less than two years of education, and so live in extreme education poverty. In Niger, three-quarters of 17-27 year olds are in extreme education poverty. Literacy programmes are necessary to provide opportunities to address the needs of illiterate adults, especially women and people from marginalized groups.

Indicator: Not completed primary education

The world has been making significant progress towards gender parity in enrolment in primary education. However, this does not apply equally to all countries or groups within countries. In at least ten countries in the World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), 9 out of 10 of the poorest women aged 15- to 24-years have not completed primary school, compared with 8 out of 10 young men. These young women urgently need a second chance to gain basic skills that will enable them to fulfil their aspirations and contribute to the prosperity of their country. Niger has the largest proportion of young women needing a second chance, where 98% of young women have not completed primary school. Much remains to be done to achieve gender equality in the way students are treated at school – and in translating education into broader participation of women in political, economic and social life.

Indicator: Expected cohort primary completion rate

A good quality education system should ensure that children enroll in time and complete primary school. Yet, in many countries, large numbers of children do not reach the end of the primary school cycle. For example, only half of children in Nigeria are expected to reach the final grade.