Duration of compulsory education in Brazil
Brazil: Duration of compulsory education was 14 years in 2025. ▲ Rising
Duration of compulsory education in Brazil, 1998–2025
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in years.
Analysis
Brazil recorded 14 years for duration of compulsory education in 2025. That is the highest value across all 28 years on record.
Compared with earlier readings it is unchanged over ten years.
Over the whole period, duration of compulsory education in Brazil peaked at 14 years in 2013 and was at its lowest, 8 years, in 1998.
That places Brazil 8th out of 205 countries with data for 2025, putting it in the top 10%.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 28 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1990s | 8 years | 8 years | 8 years | 2 |
| 2000s | 8 years | 8 years | 8 years | 10 |
| 2010s | 12.2 years | 8 years | 14 years | 10 |
| 2020s | 14 years | 14 years | 14 years | 6 |
Countries ranked near Brazil
More education data for Brazil
- Duration of pre-primary education 2 years (2025)
- Official entrance age to pre-primary education 4 years (2025)
- Population ages 15-64 69.1% (2025)
- Population ages 0-14 19.4% (2025)
- Lower secondary school starting age 11 years (2025)
- Primary school starting age 6 years (2025)
- School enrollment, primary 104.3% (2024)
- Primary education, teachers 696,748 (2024)
- Fertility rate vs. average years of schooling 1.61 live births per woman (2024)
- School enrollment, primary, female 104.3% (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is duration of compulsory education in Brazil?
- Duration of compulsory education in Brazil was 14 years in 2025, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest duration of compulsory education recorded in Brazil?
- The highest recorded value was 14 years in 2013.
- What is the lowest duration of compulsory education recorded in Brazil?
- The lowest recorded value was 8 years in 1998.
- How does Brazil rank for duration of compulsory education?
- Brazil ranks 8th out of 205 countries with data for 2025.
- Is duration of compulsory education rising or falling in Brazil?
- Over the last ten years it is unchanged. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Brazil data come from?
- The figures come from UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Duration of compulsory education. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 28 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
The number of years of compulsory education is based on students starting at the earliest entrance age, studying full-time, and advancing without grade repetition or skipping.