Out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female in Papua New Guinea
Papua New Guinea: Out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female was 14.6% in 2025. ▼ Falling
Out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female in Papua New Guinea, 2000–2025
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Measured in %.
Analysis
In 2025, out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female in Papua New Guinea stood at 14.6%. That is the lowest value across all 26 years on record.
Compared with earlier readings it is down 11.0% on the previous year and down 25.1% over ten years.
Over the whole period, out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female in Papua New Guinea peaked at 24.6% in 2019 and was at its lowest, 14.6%, in 2025.
That places Papua New Guinea 49th out of 206 countries with data for 2025, putting it in the top quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 26 years of available data.
Out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female in Papua New Guinea, year by year
| Year | % | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2000 | 22.7% | — |
| 2001 | 22.8% | +0.4% |
| 2002 | 22.8% | +0.0% |
| 2003 | 23.0% | +0.9% |
| 2004 | 23.3% | +1.3% |
| 2005 | 23.6% | +1.3% |
| 2006 | 23.4% | -0.8% |
| 2007 | 23.0% | -1.7% |
| 2008 | 22.2% | -3.5% |
| 2009 | 21.0% | -5.4% |
| 2010 | 19.5% | -7.1% |
| 2011 | 18.2% | -6.7% |
| 2012 | 17.5% | -3.8% |
| 2013 | 17.6% | +0.6% |
| 2014 | 18.2% | +3.4% |
| 2015 | 19.5% | +7.1% |
| 2016 | 21.1% | +8.2% |
| 2017 | 22.8% | +8.1% |
| 2018 | 23.9% | +4.8% |
| 2019 | 24.6% | +2.9% |
| 2020 | 24.6% | +0.0% |
| 2021 | 22.4% | -8.9% |
| 2022 | 20.5% | -8.5% |
| 2023 | 18.3% | -10.7% |
| 2024 | 16.4% | -10.4% |
| 2025 | 14.6% | -11.0% |
Papua New Guinea compared with similar countries
- Papua New Guinea's 14.6% is above the median for lower middle income countries, which is 10.0%, 1.5× the median. (47 countries reporting)
- Papua New Guinea's 14.6% is above the median for East Asia & Pacific, which is 3.0%, 4.9× the median. (32 countries reporting)
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 22.8% | 21.0% | 23.6% | 10 |
| 2010s | 20.3% | 17.5% | 24.6% | 10 |
| 2020s | 19.5% | 14.6% | 24.6% | 6 |
Countries ranked near Papua New Guinea
- 46 Democratic Republic of Congo 16.2% compare
- 47 Paraguay 16.1% compare
- 48 Burundi 15.7% compare
- 50 British Virgin Islands 14.3% compare
- 51 El Salvador 14.2% compare
- 52 Trinidad and Tobago 14.1% compare
More education data for Papua New Guinea
- Teachers in secondary education, both sexes (number), gaps filled 14,791 (2016)
- Repeaters in primary education, all grades, both sexes (number), gaps 80,915 (2023)
- Enrolment in pre-primary education, male (number), gaps filled 226,545 (2023)
- Enrolment in pre-primary education, female (number), gaps filled 208,353 (2023)
- Secondary education, pupils, gaps filled 655,030 (2023)
- Primary education, duration (years), annual growth rate 0 % change on previous year (2025)
- Primary education, pupils, gaps filled 1.65 million (2023)
- Primary education, pupils, annual growth rate 10.31 % change on previous year (2023)
- Primary education, pupils, per unit of GDP 0.0001 units per US$ of GDP (2023)
- Primary education, pupils, per capita 0.1593 units per person (2023)
Frequently asked questions
- What is out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female in Papua New Guinea?
- Out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female in Papua New Guinea was 14.6% in 2025, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- What is the highest out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female recorded in Papua New Guinea?
- The highest recorded value was 24.6% in 2019.
- What is the lowest out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female recorded in Papua New Guinea?
- The lowest recorded value was 14.6% in 2025.
- How does Papua New Guinea rank for out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female?
- Papua New Guinea ranks 49th out of 206 countries with data for 2025.
- Is out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female rising or falling in Papua New Guinea?
- Over the last ten years it is down 25.1%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this Papua New Guinea data come from?
- The figures come from UNESCO Institute for Statistics, published as part of Out-of-school rate for children of primary school age, female (modelled data) (%). Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 26 observations, free to reuse under CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO (UNESCO Institute for Statistics).
About this data
February 2026 Data Release