Education

🎓 Education

How many young people leave education too early, what qualifications adults hold, how many young people are neither working nor studying, how much is spent on education, how many pupils there are at each stage and how they perform in PISA, always compared with the European Union average.

Population aged 25-64 with tertiary education (ISCED 5-8): Spain 42.4 EU 36.9France 44.8Portugal 32.7Germany 35.4Italy 22.3 Sweden 50.8 % of population aged 25-64 · 2025 · Eurostat (EPA/LFS, edat_lfse_03) All countries →

Public spending on education: Spain 4.6 EU 4.7OECD 5.1France 5.3Portugal 4.6Germany 5.2Italy 4.1Morocco 6 (2023)US 5.4 (2021)China 3.9 (2023) Sweden 7.3 % of GDP · 2022 · World Bank (WDI, UNESCO) All countries →

The indicators for young people and adults are percentages of each age group (Spanish Labour Force Survey, EPA, harmonised by Eurostat). Spending is shown per inhabitant or per pupil and in constant euros, adjusted for inflation with the CPI; totals are given for reference only.

Early school leaving

This is the percentage of 18 to 24-year-olds who have completed at most lower secondary education (ESO) and are no longer in education or training. In 1992 it stood at 40.4 % and in 2025 it was 12.8 %, still above the European average. The EU target for 2030 is to bring it below 9 %.

Latest year available for each region (2025). Regional figures come from a smaller sample and fluctuate from year to year; those for Ceuta and Melilla are particularly unstable.

What qualifications adults hold

Spain has a highly polarised distribution: in 2025, 34.6 % of adults aged 25 to 64 had gone no further than lower secondary (ESO) (EU: 18.8 %) and only 23.0 % had upper secondary (Bachillerato or intermediate vocational training) as their highest level (EU: 44.3 %), but the share with tertiary education is above the European average. In 1992, those with no more than lower secondary made up 76.0 %.

Tertiary education: higher vocational training, bachelor's degrees, master's degrees and doctorates (levels 5 to 8 of the International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED 2011). Eurostat changed classification in 2014, which may cause small breaks in the series.

Young people neither in work nor in education

These are young people aged 15 to 29 who are neither in employment nor in education or training (NEET). They peaked at 22.5 % in 2013 and in 2025 stood at 11.5 %.

How much is spent on education

In 2024, all levels of government (central, regional and local) spent 1,384 € per inhabitant on education, in 2025 euros. In 2009 the figure was 1,472 €, and it then fell to 1,138 € in 2013: after adjusting for inflation, it has still not returned to its 2009 level. Relative to the size of its economy, Spain spends less than the EU average.

Eurostat's classification of government expenditure by function (COFOG, function 09 Education), with data from the IGAE (Spain's General Comptroller of the State Administration). It includes spending by all levels of government on public schools, publicly funded private schools, grants and universities. Adjusted for inflation with the INE's annual average CPI.

Spending on educational institutions (public and private) came to 8,811 € per pupil in 2023, in 2025 euros, compared with 7,448 € in 2012. For comparison with Europe, the second chart uses euros adjusted for each country's price level (purchasing power standard).

Annual spending on educational institutions per full-time equivalent pupil, from all sources of funding (UNESCO-OECD-Eurostat). Pre-primary refers to the second cycle (ages 3 to 5). Figures in purchasing power standards (PPS) are not adjusted for inflation and are only meant for comparing countries in the same year.

Pupils at each stage

In the 2023-24 school year there were 218 pupils per 1,000 inhabitants, from pre-primary to university (10.582 M in total).

Concertada: private schools funded mainly from public money (Eurostat's “government-dependent private” institutions). Pre-primary includes the first cycle (ages 0 to 2). Intermediate and basic vocational training (FP de grado medio y básica): vocational programmes at upper secondary level. The university block also includes other higher education (arts, sports). The year shown is the one in which the school year ends.

In the 2023-24 school year, 39.2 % of upper secondary pupils were in vocational training (FP), compared with 33.5 % in 2012-13; in the EU, 49.4 %. Vocational training is gaining ground.

PISA: low-achieving 15-year-olds

The OECD's PISA survey assesses 15-year-old pupils every three years. This section shows the share who do not reach the baseline level of proficiency (level 2). In 2022, in Spain this was 27.3 % in mathematics (EU: 29.5 %), 24.4 % in reading (EU: 26.2 %) and 21.3 % in science (EU: 24.2 %).

The round planned for 2021 took place in 2022 because of the pandemic. The OECD did not publish Spain's reading result for 2018 owing to anomalies in the responses of some pupils. Eurostat publishes the percentage of low-achieving pupils, not the mean score.

Sources and notes

• Eurostat – Early leavers from education and training (edat_lfse_14 and, by region, edat_lfse_16), based on the INE's Labour Force Survey (EPA).
• Eurostat – Population by educational attainment level (edat_lfse_03 and, by region, edat_lfse_04).
• Eurostat – Young people neither in employment nor in education and training (NEET) (edat_lfse_20 and, by region, edat_lfse_22).
• Eurostat – General government expenditure by function (COFOG) (gov_10a_exp, function 09 Education).
• Eurostat – Expenditure on educational institutions per pupil (educ_uoe_fini04).
• Eurostat – Pupils and students enrolled (educ_uoe_enra01 and educ_uoe_enrs04).
• Eurostat – Low achievement in PISA (educ_outc_pisa), with OECD data.
• Deflator: INE annual average CPI. Population: INE and Eurostat.

Data updated 7 minutes ago