Share of children in primary school age who are in school in Bhutan
Bhutan: Share of children in primary school age who are in school was 89.5% in 2024. ▲ Rising
Share of children in primary school age who are in school in Bhutan, 1978–2024
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026); Lee and Lee (2016) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
Bhutan recorded 89.5% for share of children in primary school age who are in school in 2024.
That represents a change of up 1.4% on the previous year and down 1.5% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of children in primary school age who are in school in Bhutan peaked at 94.5% in 2020 and was at its lowest, 22.0%, in 1978.
That places Bhutan 157th out of 209 countries with data for 2024, putting it in the bottom quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 23 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 23.3% | 22.0% | 24.7% | 2 |
| 1990s | 56.2% | 55.8% | 56.7% | 2 |
| 2000s | 73.2% | 58.9% | 88.3% | 6 |
| 2010s | 90.2% | 88.3% | 92.4% | 8 |
| 2020s | 89.2% | 83.9% | 94.5% | 5 |
Countries ranked near Bhutan
More education data for Bhutan
- Duration of pre-primary education 3 years (2025)
- Population ages 15-64 73.0% (2025)
- Population ages 0-14 20.4% (2025)
- Lower secondary school starting age 12 years (2025)
- Official entrance age to pre-primary education 3 years (2025)
- Primary school starting age 6 years (2025)
- School enrollment, primary 114.9% (2024)
- Primary education, teachers 3,372 (2024)
- Fertility rate vs. average years of schooling 1.45 live births per woman (2024)
- School enrollment, primary, female 119.3% (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is share of children in primary school age who are in school in Bhutan?
- Share of children in primary school age who are in school in Bhutan was 89.5% in 2024, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026); Lee and Lee (2016) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest share of children in primary school age who are in school recorded in Bhutan?
- The highest recorded value was 94.5% in 2020.
- What is the lowest share of children in primary school age who are in school recorded in Bhutan?
- The lowest recorded value was 22.0% in 1978.
- How does Bhutan rank for share of children in primary school age who are in school?
- Bhutan ranks 157th out of 209 countries with data for 2024.
- Is share of children in primary school age who are in school rising or falling in Bhutan?
- Over the last ten years it is down 1.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Bhutan data come from?
- The figures come from UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026); Lee and Lee (2016) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Share of children in primary school age who are in school. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 23 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
The share of children of primary school age (typically 6–11 years) who are enrolled in primary education.