Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in Italy
Italy: Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school was 91.2% in 2023. ▼ Falling
Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in Italy, 2001–2023
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. Measured in %.
Analysis
Italy recorded 91.2% for share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in 2023.
That represents a change of up 0.9% on the previous year and down 2.5% over ten years.
Over the whole period, share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in Italy peaked at 99.1% in 2001 and was at its lowest, 88.7%, in 2021.
That places Italy 38th out of 178 countries with data for 2023, putting it in the top quarter.
The long-run direction has been consistently falling across the 23 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000s | 96.9% | 94.9% | 99.1% | 9 |
| 2010s | 93.0% | 91.9% | 94.1% | 10 |
| 2020s | 90.6% | 88.7% | 92.2% | 4 |
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 children enrolled in pre-primary school in Italy?
- Share of children enrolled in pre-primary school in Italy was 91.2% in 2023, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2026) – with minor processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest share of children enrolled in pre-primary school recorded in Italy?
- The highest recorded value was 99.1% in 2001.
- What is the lowest share of children enrolled in pre-primary school recorded in Italy?
- The lowest recorded value was 88.7% in 2021.
- How does Italy rank for share of children enrolled in pre-primary school?
- Italy ranks 38th out of 178 countries with data for 2023.
- Is share of children enrolled in pre-primary school rising or falling in Italy?
- Over the last ten years it is down 2.5%. The long-run trend across the full record is falling.
- Where does this Italy 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 enrolled in pre-primary 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 pre-primary school age (typically 3–5 years old) who are enrolled in pre-primary education.