Japan vs South Korea: Share of children in primary school age who are in school

Japan

99.9%

in 2023

South Korea

99.9%

in 2024

Japan rank

6th

South Korea rank

5th

Share of children in primary school age who are in school over time

South Korea currently reports 99.9% against 99.9% in Japan, a difference of 0.0%.

The two have swapped places 3 times across 44 shared years of data; in 1820 it was Japan ahead.

Japan ranks 6th and South Korea ranks 5th of 209 countries.

Indicator: Share of children in primary school age who are in school
Unit: %
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026); Lee and Lee (2016) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 209 places, 8,478 data points, 1820–2025
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

The share of children of primary school age (typically 6–11 years) who are enrolled in primary education.