Share of children in primary school age who are in school in Tonga
Tonga: Share of children in primary school age who are in school was 98.1% in 2023. ▲ Rising
Share of children in primary school age who are in school in Tonga, 1970–2023
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026); Lee and Lee (2016) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
The most recent figure for share of children in primary school age who are in school in Tonga is 98.1%, measured in 2023.
Compared with earlier readings it is up 0.4% on the previous year and up 1.3% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of children in primary school age who are in school in Tonga peaked at 100.0% in 2019 and was at its lowest, 77.6%, in 1983.
Tonga ranks 73rd of 209 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 29 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970s | 96.7% | 93.9% | 98.2% | 6 |
| 1980s | 85.3% | 77.6% | 87.6% | 5 |
| 1990s | 88.7% | 86.7% | 91.4% | 4 |
| 2000s | 99.6% | 98.8% | 99.9% | 4 |
| 2010s | 98.0% | 96.7% | 100.0% | 6 |
| 2020s | 98.0% | 96.3% | 99.7% | 4 |
Countries ranked near Tonga
More education data for Tonga
- Official entrance age to pre-primary education 4 years (2025)
- Duration of pre-primary education 2 years (2025)
- Primary school starting age 6 years (2025)
- Lower secondary school starting age 12 years (2025)
- Population ages 0-14 34.9% (2025)
- Population ages 15-64 58.2% (2025)
- School enrollment, primary 108.8% (2024)
- Primary education, teachers 818 (2024)
- Fertility rate vs. average years of schooling 3.1 live births per woman (2024)
- School enrollment, primary, female 110.7% (2024)
Frequently asked questions
- What is share of children in primary school age who are in school in Tonga?
- Share of children in primary school age who are in school in Tonga was 98.1% in 2023, 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 Tonga?
- The highest recorded value was 100.0% in 2019.
- What is the lowest share of children in primary school age who are in school recorded in Tonga?
- The lowest recorded value was 77.6% in 1983.
- How does Tonga rank for share of children in primary school age who are in school?
- Tonga ranks 73rd out of 209 countries with data for 2023.
- Is share of children in primary school age who are in school rising or falling in Tonga?
- Over the last ten years it is up 1.3%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this Tonga 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 — 29 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.