How many young people go to college in each country?

In 2022, the number of students in college or university in the United States equaled 79.4% of its young adults, against 42% worldwide; the figure ranged from 166.4% in Greece to 2.7% in Malawi. Search 126 countries and territories. Each figure is everyone enrolled after secondary school, of any age, divided by the people in the five years after the usual age for finishing it, so older students can take it past 100%. Many countries report late, so the newest year in which most countries and the United States reported is shown.

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Key facts

Measure: College and university students, % of young adults. Written from the data below.

  • Greece has the highest figure, 166.4%, followed by Türkiye (127.6%) and Macao (116.2%).
  • Malawi has the lowest figure, 2.7%, followed by Suriname (5%) and Tanzania (5.3%).
  • The highest is 62 times the lowest.
  • World: 42%. Of the 126 compared, 81 are above it and 45 below.

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Source and date

Source
World Bank, World Development Indicators: School enrollment, tertiary (% gross)
License
CC BY 4.0 (credit the World Bank)
Data as of
Published

Citation

Chartly. “How many young people go to college in each country?” Chart. Data: World Bank, World Development Indicators: School enrollment, tertiary (% gross), https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SE.TER.ENRR (data as of December 31, 2022). https://chart.ly/charts/college-enrollment-by-country (accessed October 28, 2026).

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The data

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The file has the numbers in this table, with the source, license and date. Please credit the source and Chartly. Developers can also get them as JSON (how).

Country College and university students, % of young adults
Greece 166.4
Türkiye 127.6
Macao 116.2
Argentina 107.1
Australia 106.2
Cyprus 105.4
Finland 104.9
South Korea 102.8
Hong Kong 100.8
Chile 99.3
Singapore 98
Norway 97.6
Spain 95
Austria 94.5
Latvia 91.3
Iceland 85
Denmark 84.6
Bulgaria 84.1
Sweden 83.9
Belgium 83.6
Slovenia 82.4
Puerto Rico 82
Croatia 80.8
United Kingdom 79.8
United States 79.4
Georgia 79.3
Canada 78.8
Ireland 77.6
Germany 77.4
Belarus 77.1
New Zealand 77
Lithuania 76.9
Uruguay 76.4
Poland 75.3
Portugal 75.1
Malta 74.6
Switzerland 74.2
Italy 73.9
Saudi Arabia 73.7
China 71.6
France 71.5
Estonia 71.4
Czechia 70.8
Serbia 69.8
Fiji 68.8
Moldova 68.1
Mongolia 67.7
Japan 63.4
Albania 62.6
Brazil 61
United Arab Emirates 60.4
Hungary 60.3
Ecuador 59.9
Colombia 59.3
Israel 59
Iran 58.7
Lebanon 58.2
Romania 58.2
Panama 57.8
Montenegro 57.4
Armenia 57.2
Kazakhstan 57.2
Dominican Republic 55.2
Barbados 55.1
Kyrgyzstan 54.2
Russia 53.9
San Marino 53.8
Algeria 53.4
North Macedonia 53.2
Slovakia 52.5
Palau 51.5
Bahrain 50.3
Maldives 48.5
Mexico 46.4
Morocco 45.9
West Bank and Gaza 45.8
Bosnia and Herzegovina 45.6
Vietnam 44.8
Mauritius 44.2
Thailand 43.3
Indonesia 42.3
St. Vincent and the Grenadines 41.5
Marshall Islands 41.3
Azerbaijan 41
Philippines 38.4
Tajikistan 37.3
Tunisia 37.1
Malaysia 37
Egypt 36.5
Qatar 35.1
Andorra 34.6
India 32.7
Jordan 32.5
Uzbekistan 31.7
El Salvador 31.5
Brunei 31.2
British Virgin Islands 29
Namibia 26.1
Belize 24
South Africa 23.7
Bangladesh 23.5
Sri Lanka 22.4
Luxembourg 21
Botswana 20.7
Ghana 20.4
Samoa 18.6
Turks and Caicos Islands 17
Turkmenistan 16.7
Cameroon 16.4
St. Lucia 16.2
Senegal 15.6
Nepal 14.8
Bhutan 14.6
Cambodia 14.6
Seychelles 13.9
Laos 13.7
Côte d'Ivoire 11.1
Pakistan 10.5
Benin 10.2
Burkina Faso 9.7
Sint Maarten (Dutch part) 8.3
Rwanda 7.4
Madagascar 5.9
Tanzania 5.3
Suriname 5
Malawi 2.7
World 42

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