Catalina Espinosa
Research expert covering society, economy, and politics for Europe and the EU
Education worldwide - statistics & facts
There has been a significant increase in worldwide access to education in recent years. Around 655 million children were enrolled in primary school in 2000, the and nearly 780 million in 2024. However, the higher the education level, the fewer people worldwide had access to it. For instance, among the OECD countries, less than 41 percent of their population had attained a tertiary education level.
Regional differences in higher education.
Even where students have access to educational facilities, there are differences in the education quality students receive. This is especially visible in higher education. As of 2023, India has more universities than any other country worldwide while having no university at the top of academic rankings. The United States, on the other hand, has a much lower number of universities but is home to over half of the best 25 academic universities worldwide. Additionally, only four of the top-ranked universities in the world were neither in the United States nor Western Europe. No university from South America or Africa made it to the best-ranked universities. Furthermore, public expenditure on higher education varies significantly from country to country: while the Norwegian and Austrian governments spend close to two percent of their gross domestic product (GDP) on higher education, the figure was only 0.4 percent in Luxembourg.
The impact of AI in education
Since the rapid expansion of Artificial Intelligence, the education sector has undergone notable changes in how learning materials are produced, delivered, and assessed. AI tools are now used for tasks such as automated feedback, content generation, adaptive practice, and administrative support. At the same time, a recent surveys to teachers reports concerns that wider use of AI may reduce face to face classroom interaction and change the nature of student–teacher engagement.
Identified risks extend beyond academic integrity issues. Commonly cited challenges include potential effects on students’ independent problem solving and writing practice, overreliance on automated assistance, and the possibility of bias in AI systems. In addition, unequal access to digital infrastructure and advanced tools can reinforce existing educational inequalities. Policy discussions therefore focus on how to integrate AI in ways that maintain core educational objectives, such as the development of cognitive skills, fairness, and data protection, while making use of the efficiency and personalization these systems can offer.
Reducing the literacy gapÂ
While universal access to education is declared in the UN Declaration of Human Rights, it varies greatly across the world. While only 1.2 percent of the adult population in Europe and Central Asia were illiterate, this proportion nearly reached one-third in Sub-Saharan Africa. Adult men are on average more literate than women reflecting the unequal access to education based on gender. However, the literacy gender gap has shrunk among the world’s younger generations in recent years.Â
