Share of children who have completed primary school in India
India: Share of children who have completed primary school was 96.5% in 2025. ▲ Rising
Share of children who have completed primary school in India, 1981–2025
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
In 2025, share of children who have completed primary school in India stood at 96.5%. That is the highest value across all 45 years on record.
That represents a change of up 0.4% on the previous year and up 6.3% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of children who have completed primary school in India peaked at 96.5% in 2025 and was at its lowest, 39.9%, in 1981.
That places India 90th out of 165 countries with data for 2025, putting it in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 45 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 47.1% | 39.9% | 54.0% | 9 |
| 1990s | 62.5% | 55.6% | 69.6% | 10 |
| 2000s | 78.4% | 71.3% | 85.0% | 10 |
| 2010s | 90.2% | 86.2% | 93.7% | 10 |
| 2020s | 95.5% | 94.3% | 96.5% | 6 |
Countries ranked near India
More education data for India
- Duration of pre-primary education 3 years (2025)
- Official entrance age to pre-primary education 3 years (2025)
- Population ages 15-64 68.4% (2025)
- Population ages 0-14 24.2% (2025)
- Lower secondary school starting age 11 years (2025)
- Primary school starting age 6 years (2025)
- School enrollment, primary 111.0% (2025)
- Primary education, teachers 5.19 million (2025)
- Fertility rate vs. average years of schooling 1.96 live births per woman (2024)
- School enrollment, primary, female 110.6% (2025)
Frequently asked questions
- What is share of children who have completed primary school in India?
- Share of children who have completed primary school in India was 96.5% in 2025, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest share of children who have completed primary school recorded in India?
- The highest recorded value was 96.5% in 2025.
- What is the lowest share of children who have completed primary school recorded in India?
- The lowest recorded value was 39.9% in 1981.
- How does India rank for share of children who have completed primary school?
- India ranks 90th out of 165 countries with data for 2025.
- Is share of children who have completed primary school rising or falling in India?
- Over the last ten years it is up 6.3%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this India data come from?
- The figures come from UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Share of children who have completed primary school. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 45 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
The share of children who are three to five years older than the official age for the last grade of primary education who have successfully completed it. This broader age band is used to include children who started school late or had to resit particular years.