Educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or in United States
United States: Educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or was 97.8% in 2024. ▲ Rising
Educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or in United States, 1970–2024
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Measured in %.
Analysis
United States recorded 97.8% for educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or in 2024. That is the highest value across all 22 years on record.
That represents a change of up 0.1% on the previous year and up 2.5% over ten years.
Over the whole period, educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or in United States peaked at 97.8% in 2024 and was at its lowest, 68.8%, in 1970.
That places United States 17th out of 97 countries with data for 2024, putting it in the top quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 22 years of available data.
Educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or in United States, year by year
| Year | % | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 1970 | 68.8% | — |
| 2004 | 94.4% | +37.3% |
| 2005 | 94.0% | -0.5% |
| 2006 | 94.5% | +0.6% |
| 2007 | 96.7% | +2.3% |
| 2008 | 94.7% | -2.0% |
| 2009 | 94.7% | -0.0% |
| 2010 | 94.9% | +0.3% |
| 2011 | 95.0% | +0.1% |
| 2012 | 95.1% | +0.0% |
| 2013 | 95.4% | +0.3% |
| 2014 | 95.4% | +0.0% |
| 2015 | 95.4% | -0.0% |
| 2016 | 95.6% | +0.2% |
| 2017 | 97.3% | +1.8% |
| 2018 | 96.0% | -1.4% |
| 2019 | 97.4% | +1.5% |
| 2020 | 96.5% | -1.0% |
| 2021 | 97.7% | +1.3% |
| 2022 | 96.6% | -1.1% |
| 2023 | 97.7% | +1.1% |
| 2024 | 97.8% | +0.1% |
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 68.8% | 68.8% | 68.8% | 1 |
| 2000s | 94.8% | 94.0% | 96.7% | 6 |
| 2010s | 95.8% | 94.9% | 97.4% | 10 |
| 2020s | 97.2% | 96.5% | 97.8% | 5 |
Countries ranked near United States
More education data for United States
- Theoretical duration of upper secondary education (years), annual 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Theoretical duration of secondary education (years), annual growth 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Start of the academic school year (tertiary education), gaps filled 2,022 tertiary education (2023)
- Start of the academic school year (tertiary education), annual growth 0.0495 % change on previous year (2023)
- Primary education, teachers, gaps filled 1.78 million (2023)
- Duration of pre primary education, annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Duration of pre primary education 3 (2025)
- Official entrance age to pre primary education 3 (2025)
- Population ages 15-64 64.5% (2025)
- Population ages 0-14 17.1% (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or in United States?
- Educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or in United States was 97.8% in 2024, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- What is the highest educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or recorded in United States?
- The highest recorded value was 97.8% in 2024.
- What is the lowest educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or recorded in United States?
- The lowest recorded value was 68.8% in 1970.
- How does United States rank for educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or?
- United States ranks 17th out of 97 countries with data for 2024.
- Is educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or rising or falling in United States?
- Over the last ten years it is up 2.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this United States data come from?
- The figures come from UNESCO Institute for Statistics, published as part of Educational attainment rate, completed lower secondary education or higher, population 25+ years, urban, female (%). Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 22 observations, free to reuse under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (UNESCO Institute for Statistics).
About this data
February 2026 Data Release