Share of the world's population with formal basic education by country

Name: Share of the world's population with formal basic education
Creator: World Bank (2024); van Zanden, J. et al.; Wittgenstein Centre (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
License: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)

Share of people aged 15 or older who have not received some kind of formal primary, secondary, or tertiary education.

Countries reporting

Highest

29.7%

Nigeria

Lowest

0.0%

Sweden

Median

1.4%

Years covered

1950–2020

Data points

375

What the numbers show

Share of the world's population with formal basic education is currently reported for 25 countries. The highest value is 29.7% in Nigeria; the lowest is 0.0% in Sweden.

The median across all reporting countries is 1.4%, and the mean is 5.3%.

The gap between the highest and lowest reporting country is a factor of about 3,154.

Share of the world's population with formal basic education: full country ranking

#	Country	Latest	Year	10-year change	Trend
1	Nigeria	29.7%	2020	down 25.0%	falling
2	India	27.6%	2020	down 17.6%	falling
3	Egypt	23.5%	2020	down 17.3%	falling
4	Kenya	13.4%	2020	down 17.8%	volatile
5	Brazil	6.5%	2020	down 26.6%	volatile
6	South Africa	5.4%	2020	down 27.5%	volatile
7	Indonesia	5.2%	2020	down 32.6%	volatile
8	Mexico	5.1%	2020	down 26.3%	volatile
9	China	3.1%	2020	down 39.0%	volatile
10	Turkey	2.8%	2020	down 49.9%	volatile
11	Thailand	2.7%	2020	down 26.5%	volatile
12	France	1.4%	2020	down 14.7%	falling
13	Spain	1.4%	2020	down 24.6%	volatile
14	Argentina	1.3%	2020	down 31.7%	volatile
15	United States	0.9%	2020	down 20.0%	falling
16	Italy	0.6%	2020	down 36.4%	volatile
17	Australia	0.6%	2020	down 22.0%	falling
18	Russia	0.2%	2020	down 8.4%	volatile
19	Japan	0.1%	2020	down 20.2%	volatile
20	Poland	0.0%	2020	—	volatile
21	United Kingdom	0.0%	2020	—	volatile
22	Germany	0.0%	2020	—	volatile
23	Netherlands	0.0%	2020	—	volatile
24	Canada	0.0%	2020	down 97.6%	falling
25	Sweden	0.0%	2020	—	volatile

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Share of the world's population with formal basic education by country. Statizoid, drawing on World Bank (2024); van Zanden, J. et al.; Wittgenstein Centre (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data. Retrieved 29 September 2026, from https://education.statizoid.com/stat/share-of-the-world-population-with-at-least-basic-education/

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About this data

Indicator: Share of the world's population with formal basic education
Unit: %
Source: World Bank (2024); van Zanden, J. et al.; Wittgenstein Centre (2024) – with major processing by Our World in Data
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data)
Coverage: 25 places, 375 data points, 1950–2020
Last refreshed: 18 September 2026

Share of people aged 15 or older who have not received some kind of formal primary, secondary, or tertiary education.