Australia vs Sweden: Share of the population with tertiary education
Australia
30.2%
in 2020
Sweden
30.6%
in 2020
Australia rank
25th
Sweden rank
23rd
Share of the population with tertiary education over time
- Australia
- Sweden
How they compare
Sweden currently reports 30.6% against 30.2% in Australia, a difference of 0.4%.
The two have swapped places 2 times across 31 shared years of data; in 1870 it was Sweden ahead.
Australia ranks 25th and Sweden ranks 23rd of 111 countries.
Across the 16 decades both report, Australia averaged higher in 12 and Sweden in 4.
Head to head by decade
| Decade | Australia | Sweden | Difference | Ahead |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1870s | 0.0% | 0.1% | 0.1% | Sweden |
| 1880s | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.2% | Sweden |
| 1890s | 0.1% | 0.2% | 0.1% | Sweden |
| 1900s | 0.2% | 0.2% | 0.0% | Australia |
| 1910s | 1.2% | 0.3% | 0.9% | Australia |
| 1920s | 3.8% | 0.8% | 3.0% | Australia |
| 1930s | 6.4% | 2.4% | 4.0% | Australia |
| 1940s | 9.0% | 3.5% | 5.5% | Australia |
| 1950s | 11.4% | 5.0% | 6.5% | Australia |
| 1960s | 13.4% | 6.7% | 6.7% | Australia |
| 1970s | 21.9% | 10.3% | 11.5% | Australia |
| 1980s | 24.1% | 18.5% | 5.6% | Australia |
| 1990s | 28.5% | 24.1% | 4.4% | Australia |
| 2000s | 29.8% | 27.4% | 2.4% | Australia |
| 2010s | 35.8% | 31.0% | 4.8% | Australia |
| 2020s | 30.2% | 30.6% | 0.4% | Sweden |
Averages of every year both report within each decade.
Frequently asked questions
- Which has higher share of the population with tertiary education, Australia or Sweden?
- Sweden, at 30.6% against 30.2% in Australia as of 2020.
- What is the difference in share of the population with tertiary education between Australia and Sweden?
- 0.4%, with Sweden ahead.
- How many years of comparable data are there for Australia and Sweden?
- 31 years are reported by both, from 1870 to 2020.
- How do Australia and Sweden rank globally for share of the population with tertiary education?
- Australia ranks 25th and Sweden ranks 23rd of 111 countries.
- Where does this data come from?
- Barro and Lee (2015); Lee and Lee (2016) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as Share of the population with tertiary education. Statizoid refreshes it automatically from the source and publishes the full history for both places.
Individual pages
About this data
Percentage of the population aged 25 to 65 years who have either completed or partially completed tertiary education.