Enrolment in tertiary education, ISCED 6 programmes, female (number) by country

Total number of female students enrolled in public and private tertiary education institutions in programmes on the bachelors or equivalent (ISCED 6) level.

Countries reporting

105

Highest

14.95 million number

India

Lowest

173.5 number

Liechtenstein

Median

106,625 number

Years covered

1999–2020

Data points

1,002

What the numbers show

Enrolment in tertiary education, ISCED 6 programmes, female (number) is currently reported for 105 countries. The highest value is 14.95 million number in India; the lowest is 173.5 number in Liechtenstein.

The median across all reporting countries is 106,625 number, and the mean is 637,707 number.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 86,169.

Over the past decade 63 countries rose and 32 fell. The largest increase was in Mozambique (up 134.1%), and the largest decrease in Moldova (down 41.9%).

Enrolment in tertiary education, ISCED 6 programmes, female: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	India	14.95 million number	2019	up 34.5%	rising
2	China	13.02 million number	2019	up 42.6%	rising
3	United States	4.95 million number	2018	—	flat
4	Brazil	4.82 million number	2018	up 15.5%	rising
5	Mexico	2.05 million number	2018	up 40.7%	rising
6	Turkey	1.88 million number	2018	up 35.0%	rising
7	Philippines	1.75 million number	2017	up 31.3%	rising
8	Russia	1.63 million number	2018	up 33.1%	rising
9	Egypt	1.31 million number	2017	—	rising
10	Japan	1.22 million number	2018	up 3.2%	flat
11	Iran	1.06 million number	2018	down 31.2%	falling
12	Vietnam	906,849 number	2018	up 34.6%	rising
13	United Kingdom	906,452 number	2018	up 7.9%	rising
14	South Korea	876,469 number	2018	down 0.0%	flat
15	Germany	875,203 number	2018	up 21.1%	rising
16	Colombia	856,845 number	2018	up 22.5%	rising
17	Pakistan	761,169 number	2018	up 2.6%	flat
18	Saudi Arabia	703,490 number	2019	up 20.4%	rising
19	Spain	659,866 number	2018	up 12.3%	rising
20	France	625,091 number	2018	up 14.8%	rising
21	Algeria	619,093 number	2018	up 3.6%	rising
22	Italy	612,887 number	2018	up 0.3%	flat
23	Australia	574,022 number	2018	up 11.1%	rising
24	Canada	572,721 number	2018	up 4.9%	rising
25	Poland	557,156 number	2018	down 23.0%	falling
26	South Africa	441,248 number	2018	up 21.5%	rising
27	Chile	419,040 number	2018	up 7.6%	rising
28	Ukraine	415,603 number	2019	down 32.0%	falling
29	Malaysia	392,452 number	2019	up 26.5%	rising
30	Morocco	380,451 number	2019	—	rising
31	Syria	337,949 number	2016	up 32.9%	rising
32	Dominican Republic	335,183 number	2017	up 26.3%	rising
33	Greece	312,706 number	2018	up 10.6%	rising
34	Ecuador	299,546 number	2016	—	flat
35	Kazakhstan	292,231 number	2019	up 5.7%	flat
36	Belgium	208,652 number	2018	up 2.3%	flat
37	Nepal	203,448 number	2019	up 2.5%	flat
38	Romania	181,573 number	2018	down 13.7%	falling
39	Belarus	154,590 number	2018	down 37.6%	falling
40	Sweden	154,338 number	2018	down 3.4%	flat
41	Sri Lanka	143,068 number	2019	down 7.2%	falling
42	Israel	140,789 number	2018	up 2.9%	flat
43	Cuba	137,687 number	2018	down 14.5%	falling
44	Honduras	134,876 number	2018	up 42.1%	rising
45	Norway	120,165 number	2018	up 7.1%	rising
46	Ghana	117,620 number	2019	up 53.0%	rising
47	Denmark	115,155 number	2018	up 7.6%	rising
48	Palestine	112,301 number	2019	up 4.2%	flat
49	Portugal	112,049 number	2018	down 9.7%	falling
50	New Zealand	111,232 number	2018	up 4.7%	rising
51	Czechia	110,174 number	2018	down 27.7%	falling
52	Tunisia	107,199 number	2019	down 23.6%	falling
53	Finland	106,625 number	2018	down 10.5%	falling
54	Serbia	105,933 number	2019	down 2.7%	flat
55	Austria	105,293 number	2018	up 10.0%	rising
56	Switzerland	102,457 number	2018	up 11.8%	rising
57	Costa Rica	98,110 number	2019	up 10.5%	rising
58	Hungary	96,140 number	2018	down 24.3%	falling
59	Mozambique	93,166 number	2018	up 134.1%	rising
60	Ireland	86,980 number	2018	up 35.3%	rising
61	Hong Kong	85,815 number	2019	up 11.8%	rising
62	El Salvador	84,782 number	2018	up 10.0%	rising
63	Bulgaria	80,474 number	2018	down 22.4%	falling
64	United Arab Emirates	75,327 number	2017	—	rising
65	Azerbaijan	74,254 number	2019	up 13.8%	rising
66	Senegal	64,753 number	2019	up 65.7%	rising
67	Madagascar	61,362 number	2018	up 57.9%	rising
68	Oman	58,486 number	2019	up 37.4%	rising
69	Kuwait	57,871 number	2019	up 15.3%	rising
70	Tanzania	56,655 number	2019	up 14.7%	rising
71	Georgia	54,531 number	2019	down 0.8%	falling
72	Albania	52,700 number	2019	down 19.9%	falling
73	Croatia	52,332 number	2018	down 4.2%	falling
74	Lithuania	47,947 number	2018	down 31.6%	falling
75	Slovakia	45,834 number	2018	down 35.6%	falling
76	Cote d'Ivoire	39,612 number	2017	up 75.8%	rising
77	Bosnia and Herzegovina	37,798 number	2019	down 28.4%	falling
78	Armenia	35,938 number	2019	down 23.5%	falling
79	North Macedonia	31,669 number	2018	up 2.1%	flat
80	Rwanda	29,286 number	2019	down 7.9%	falling
81	Moldova	26,049 number	2019	down 41.9%	falling
82	Latvia	25,517 number	2018	down 30.8%	falling
83	Slovenia	24,628 number	2018	down 22.8%	falling
84	Bahrain	23,615 number	2019	up 29.6%	rising
85	Laos	23,055 number	2019	down 40.1%	falling
86	Botswana	20,036 number	2019	up 20.6%	rising
87	Mali	18,391 number	2015	—	falling
88	Mauritius	18,082 number	2017	—	flat
89	Qatar	17,327 number	2019	up 65.0%	rising
90	Niger	16,812 number	2019	—	rising
91	Estonia	16,402 number	2018	down 35.2%	falling
92	Burundi	15,496 number	2018	up 77.1%	rising
93	Macao	14,077 number	2019	up 16.1%	rising
94	Cyprus	10,549 number	2018	up 0.9%	flat
95	Iceland	7,634 number	2018	down 8.8%	falling
96	Cape Verde	6,460 number	2018	down 10.5%	falling
97	Lesotho	6,002 number	2018	up 7.6%	flat
98	Malta	4,571 number	2018	up 17.5%	rising
99	Brunei	4,023 number	2019	up 27.2%	rising
100	Belize	3,515 number	2019	up 18.2%	rising
101	Saint Lucia	670 number	2019	down 9.9%	falling
102	Seychelles	604 number	2019	up 107.6%	rising
103	Monaco	306 number	2020	—	falling
104	Andorra	283.5 number	2019	up 0.9%	rising
105	Liechtenstein	173.5 number	2018	—	rising

Regions and income groups

Aggregates are excluded from the country ranking above so that a region can never outrank a country.

World 80.56 million number
IDA & IBRD total 65.03 million number
Low & middle income 64.03 million number
Middle income 62.26 million number
IBRD only 59.10 million number
Early-demographic dividend 37.63 million number
Upper middle income 36.62 million number
Late-demographic dividend 26.24 million number
Lower middle income 25.64 million number
East Asia & Pacific 24.03 million number
East Asia & Pacific (excluding high income) 21.43 million number
East Asia & Pacific (IDA & IBRD countries) 21.28 million number

About this data

Indicator: Enrolment in tertiary education, ISCED 6 programmes, female (number)
Unit: number
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (World Bank Open Data)
Coverage: 148 places, 1,002 data points, 1999–2020
Last refreshed: 07 August 2026

Total number of female students enrolled in public and private tertiary education institutions in programmes on the bachelors or equivalent (ISCED 6) level.