Share of the population with at least some formal education in Italy
Italy: Share of the population with at least some formal education was 99.0% in 2020. ▲ Rising
Share of the population with at least some formal education in Italy, 1870–2020
Source: Barro and Lee (2015); Lee and Lee (2016) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
The most recent figure for share of the population with at least some formal education in Italy is 99.0%, measured in 2020. That is the highest value across all 31 years on record.
That represents a change of up 0.5% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of the population with at least some formal education in Italy peaked at 99.0% in 2020 and was at its lowest, 28.1%, in 1870.
That places Italy 23rd out of 111 countries with data for 2020, putting it in the top quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 31 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1870s | 29.4% | 28.1% | 30.6% | 2 |
| 1880s | 37.0% | 34.7% | 39.3% | 2 |
| 1890s | 45.5% | 43.6% | 47.5% | 2 |
| 1900s | 53.5% | 51.8% | 55.3% | 2 |
| 1910s | 59.0% | 56.7% | 61.4% | 2 |
| 1920s | 68.6% | 66.3% | 70.9% | 2 |
| 1930s | 75.3% | 73.6% | 77.0% | 2 |
| 1940s | 84.0% | 81.8% | 86.3% | 2 |
| 1950s | 89.2% | 88.4% | 90.1% | 2 |
| 1960s | 93.2% | 92.2% | 94.1% | 2 |
| 1970s | 95.5% | 95.1% | 95.9% | 2 |
| 1980s | 94.4% | 94.1% | 94.7% | 2 |
| 1990s | 95.7% | 95.2% | 96.2% | 2 |
| 2000s | 97.7% | 97.4% | 98.0% | 2 |
| 2010s | 98.7% | 98.5% | 98.8% | 2 |
| 2020s | 99.0% | 99.0% | 99.0% | 1 |
Countries ranked near Italy
More education data for Italy
- Duration of pre-primary education 3 years (2025)
- Official entrance age to pre-primary education 3 years (2025)
- Population ages 15-64 63.2% (2025)
- Population ages 0-14 11.7% (2025)
- Lower secondary school starting age 11 years (2025)
- Primary school starting age 6 years (2025)
- School enrollment, primary 103.6% (2023)
- Primary education, teachers 250,961 (2024)
- Fertility rate vs. average years of schooling 1.21 live births per woman (2024)
- School enrollment, primary, female 103.0% (2023)
Frequently asked questions
- What is share of the population with at least some formal education in Italy?
- Share of the population with at least some formal education in Italy was 99.0% in 2020, according to Barro and Lee (2015); Lee and Lee (2016) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest share of the population with at least some formal education recorded in Italy?
- The highest recorded value was 99.0% in 2020.
- What is the lowest share of the population with at least some formal education recorded in Italy?
- The lowest recorded value was 28.1% in 1870.
- How does Italy rank for share of the population with at least some formal education?
- Italy ranks 23rd out of 111 countries with data for 2020.
- Is share of the population with at least some formal education rising or falling in Italy?
- Over the last ten years it is up 0.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Italy data come from?
- The figures come from Barro and Lee (2015); Lee and Lee (2016) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Share of the population with at least some formal education. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 31 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
Based on the population aged 15 years and older.