{"id": 1271720, "name": "Average years of schooling (long-run)", "unit": "years", "createdAt": "2026-06-23T09:21:56.000Z", "updatedAt": "2026-06-26T08:57:29.000Z", "coverage": "", "timespan": "1870-2023", "datasetId": 7083, "columnOrder": 0, "shortName": "average_years_of_schooling", "catalogPath": "grapher/un/2025-05-07/undp_hdr/undp_hdr_mys_long_run#average_years_of_schooling", "descriptionShort": "Average number of years of schooling received by adults, combining UNDP and Lee & Lee historical estimates.", "descriptionProcessing": "For each country, we use UNDP data from its earliest available year (typically 1990) onward. For years before that, we use Lee & Lee (2016) historical estimates.", "type": "float", "grapherConfigIdETL": "019ef3c9-4ce0-72f6-87a5-30b80adb1caa", "dataChecksum": "14259961414848943110", "metadataChecksum": "-1159069430415603326", "datasetName": "Human Development Report", "updatePeriodDays": 365, "datasetVersion": "2025-05-07", "nonRedistributable": false, "display": {"name": "Average years of schooling", "unit": "years", "numDecimalPlaces": 1}, "schemaVersion": 2, "processingLevel": "minor", "presentation": {"titlePublic": "Average years of schooling", "attributionShort": "UNDP", "topicTagsLinks": ["Global Education"]}, "descriptionKey": ["This indicator shows the average number of years that adults in a country have spent in formal education. It reflects what people have already completed \u2014 someone who finished high school counts as roughly 12 years, while someone who never attended school counts as 0.", "The data captures how much schooling adults have accumulated over their lifetimes, showing the results of past investments in education systems. Higher values indicate a population with stronger educational foundations, though the measure does not account for education quality or informal learning.", "This indicator combines two sources. From 1990 onward, it uses the [UNDP Human Development Report](https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/documentation-and-downloads), which draws on censuses and surveys of adults aged 25 and older \u2014 originally compiled from Barro and Lee, Eurostat, Demographic and Health Surveys, UNESCO, and UNICEF. For earlier years, it uses historical estimates from [Lee & Lee (2016)](http://piketty.pse.ens.fr/files/LeeLee2016.pdf), which go back as far as 1870.", "The two sources cover slightly different age groups. UNDP measures adults aged 25 and older, while Lee & Lee covers the 15\u201364 range. This means the UNDP figure includes older, less-educated cohorts that Lee & Lee excludes, which can make the UNDP values slightly lower. In practice, the splice is clean \u2014 the median gap at the crossover is 0.8 years across 115 countries.", "The data may not reflect recent progress in countries with infrequent surveys or outdated census information."], "dimensions": {"years": {"values": [{"id": 1870}, {"id": 1875}, {"id": 1880}, {"id": 1885}, {"id": 1890}, {"id": 1895}, {"id": 1900}, {"id": 1905}, {"id": 1910}, {"id": 1915}, {"id": 1920}, {"id": 1925}, {"id": 1930}, {"id": 1935}, {"id": 1940}, {"id": 1945}, {"id": 1950}, {"id": 1955}, {"id": 1960}, {"id": 1965}, {"id": 1970}, {"id": 1975}, {"id": 1980}, {"id": 1985}, {"id": 1990}, {"id": 1991}, {"id": 1992}, {"id": 1993}, {"id": 1994}, {"id": 1995}, {"id": 1996}, {"id": 1997}, {"id": 1998}, {"id": 1999}, {"id": 2000}, {"id": 2001}, {"id": 2002}, {"id": 2003}, {"id": 2004}, {"id": 2005}, {"id": 2006}, {"id": 2007}, {"id": 2008}, {"id": 2009}, {"id": 2010}, {"id": 2011}, {"id": 2012}, {"id": 2013}, {"id": 2014}, {"id": 2015}, {"id": 2016}, {"id": 2017}, {"id": 2018}, {"id": 2019}, {"id": 2020}, {"id": 2021}, {"id": 2022}, {"id": 2023}]}, "entities": {"values": [{"id": 15, "name": "Afghanistan", "code": "AFG"}, {"id": 273, "name": "Africa", "code": "OWID_AFR"}, {"id": 16, "name": "Albania", "code": "ALB"}, {"id": 17, "name": "Algeria", "code": "DZA"}, {"id": 18, "name": "Andorra", "code": "AND"}, {"id": 19, "name": "Angola", "code": "AGO"}, {"id": 20, "name": "Antigua and Barbuda", "code": "ATG"}, {"id": 351661, "name": "Arab States (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 21, "name": "Argentina", "code": "ARG"}, {"id": 22, "name": "Armenia", "code": "ARM"}, {"id": 275, "name": "Asia", "code": "OWID_ASI"}, {"id": 23, "name": "Australia", "code": "AUS"}, {"id": 24, "name": "Austria", "code": "AUT"}, {"id": 25, "name": "Azerbaijan", "code": "AZE"}, {"id": 26, "name": "Bahamas", "code": "BHS"}, {"id": 27, "name": "Bahrain", "code": "BHR"}, {"id": 28, "name": "Bangladesh", "code": "BGD"}, {"id": 29, "name": "Barbados", "code": "BRB"}, {"id": 30, "name": "Belarus", "code": "BLR"}, {"id": 4, "name": "Belgium", "code": "BEL"}, {"id": 31, "name": "Belize", "code": "BLZ"}, {"id": 32, "name": "Benin", "code": "BEN"}, {"id": 33, "name": "Bhutan", "code": "BTN"}, {"id": 34, "name": "Bolivia", "code": "BOL"}, {"id": 35, "name": "Bosnia and Herzegovina", "code": "BIH"}, {"id": 36, "name": "Botswana", "code": "BWA"}, {"id": 37, "name": "Brazil", "code": "BRA"}, {"id": 38, "name": "Brunei", "code": "BRN"}, {"id": 39, "name": "Bulgaria", "code": "BGR"}, {"id": 40, "name": "Burkina Faso", "code": "BFA"}, {"id": 41, "name": "Burundi", "code": "BDI"}, {"id": 42, "name": "Cambodia", "code": "KHM"}, {"id": 43, "name": "Cameroon", "code": "CMR"}, {"id": 44, "name": "Canada", "code": "CAN"}, {"id": 45, "name": "Cape Verde", "code": "CPV"}, {"id": 174, "name": "Central African Republic", "code": "CAF"}, {"id": 173, "name": "Chad", "code": "TCD"}, {"id": 172, "name": "Chile", "code": "CHL"}, {"id": 171, "name": "China", "code": "CHN"}, {"id": 170, "name": "Colombia", "code": "COL"}, {"id": 169, "name": "Comoros", "code": "COM"}, {"id": 168, "name": "Congo", "code": "COG"}, {"id": 166, "name": "Costa Rica", "code": "CRI"}, {"id": 143, "name": "Cote d'Ivoire", "code": "CIV"}, {"id": 165, "name": "Croatia", "code": "HRV"}, {"id": 164, "name": "Cuba", "code": "CUB"}, {"id": 163, "name": "Cyprus", "code": "CYP"}, {"id": 162, "name": "Czechia", "code": "CZE"}, {"id": 167, "name": "Democratic Republic of Congo", "code": "COD"}, {"id": 161, "name": "Denmark", "code": "DNK"}, {"id": 154, "name": "Djibouti", "code": "DJI"}, {"id": 200, "name": "Dominica", "code": "DMA"}, {"id": 160, "name": "Dominican Republic", "code": "DOM"}, {"id": 351663, "name": "East Asia and the Pacific (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 225, "name": "East Timor", "code": "TLS"}, {"id": 201, "name": "Ecuador", "code": "ECU"}, {"id": 65, "name": "Egypt", "code": "EGY"}, {"id": 259, "name": "El Salvador", "code": "SLV"}, {"id": 159, "name": "Equatorial Guinea", "code": "GNQ"}, {"id": 157, "name": "Eritrea", "code": "ERI"}, {"id": 156, "name": "Estonia", "code": "EST"}, {"id": 78, "name": "Eswatini", "code": "SWZ"}, {"id": 158, "name": "Ethiopia", "code": "ETH"}, {"id": 276, "name": "Europe", "code": "OWID_EUR"}, {"id": 351658, "name": "Europe and Central Asia (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 115117, "name": "European Union (27)", "code": "OWID_EU27"}, {"id": 202, "name": "Fiji", "code": "FJI"}, {"id": 155, "name": "Finland", "code": "FIN"}, {"id": 3, "name": "France", "code": "FRA"}, {"id": 153, "name": "Gabon", "code": "GAB"}, {"id": 151, "name": "Gambia", "code": "GMB"}, {"id": 152, "name": "Georgia", "code": "GEO"}, {"id": 6, "name": "Germany", "code": "DEU"}, {"id": 150, "name": "Ghana", "code": "GHA"}, {"id": 149, "name": "Greece", "code": "GRC"}, {"id": 206, "name": "Grenada", "code": "GRD"}, {"id": 148, "name": "Guatemala", "code": "GTM"}, {"id": 147, "name": "Guinea", "code": "GIN"}, {"id": 94, "name": "Guinea-Bissau", "code": "GNB"}, {"id": 146, "name": "Guyana", "code": "GUY"}, {"id": 145, "name": "Haiti", "code": "HTI"}, {"id": 351657, "name": "High human development (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 457, "name": "High-income countries", "code": "OWID_HIC"}, {"id": 139, "name": "Honduras", "code": "HND"}, {"id": 144, "name": "Hong Kong", "code": "HKG"}, {"id": 138, "name": "Hungary", "code": "HUN"}, {"id": 207, "name": "Iceland", "code": "ISL"}, {"id": 137, "name": "India", "code": "IND"}, {"id": 136, "name": "Indonesia", "code": "IDN"}, {"id": 135, "name": "Iran", "code": "IRN"}, {"id": 134, "name": "Iraq", "code": "IRQ"}, {"id": 2, "name": "Ireland", "code": "IRL"}, {"id": 133, "name": "Israel", "code": "ISR"}, {"id": 8, "name": "Italy", "code": "ITA"}, {"id": 132, "name": "Jamaica", "code": "JAM"}, {"id": 14, "name": "Japan", "code": "JPN"}, {"id": 130, "name": "Jordan", "code": "JOR"}, {"id": 131, "name": "Kazakhstan", "code": "KAZ"}, {"id": 129, "name": "Kenya", "code": "KEN"}, {"id": 204, "name": "Kiribati", "code": "KIR"}, {"id": 208, "name": "Kuwait", "code": "KWT"}, {"id": 126, "name": "Kyrgyzstan", "code": "KGZ"}, {"id": 125, "name": "Laos", "code": "LAO"}, {"id": 351655, "name": "Latin America and the Caribbean (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 122, "name": "Latvia", "code": "LVA"}, {"id": 124, "name": "Lebanon", "code": "LBN"}, {"id": 123, "name": "Lesotho", "code": "LSO"}, {"id": 121, "name": "Liberia", "code": "LBR"}, {"id": 120, "name": "Libya", "code": "LBY"}, {"id": 209, "name": "Liechtenstein", "code": "LIE"}, {"id": 119, "name": "Lithuania", "code": "LTU"}, {"id": 351660, "name": "Low human development (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 461, "name": "Low-income countries", "code": "OWID_LIC"}, {"id": 460, "name": "Lower-middle-income countries", "code": "OWID_LMC"}, {"id": 210, "name": "Luxembourg", "code": "LUX"}, {"id": 118, "name": "Madagascar", "code": "MDG"}, {"id": 117, "name": "Malawi", "code": "MWI"}, {"id": 116, "name": "Malaysia", "code": "MYS"}, {"id": 211, "name": "Maldives", "code": "MDV"}, {"id": 115, "name": "Mali", "code": "MLI"}, {"id": 212, "name": "Malta", "code": "MLT"}, {"id": 223, "name": "Marshall Islands", "code": "MHL"}, {"id": 114, "name": "Mauritania", "code": "MRT"}, {"id": 213, "name": "Mauritius", "code": "MUS"}, {"id": 351662, "name": "Medium human development (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 113, "name": "Mexico", "code": "MEX"}, {"id": 222, "name": "Micronesia (country)", "code": "FSM"}, {"id": 111, "name": "Moldova", "code": "MDA"}, {"id": 112, "name": "Mongolia", "code": "MNG"}, {"id": 215, "name": "Montenegro", "code": "MNE"}, {"id": 110, "name": "Morocco", "code": "MAR"}, {"id": 109, "name": "Mozambique", "code": "MOZ"}, {"id": 142, "name": "Myanmar", "code": "MMR"}, {"id": 108, "name": "Namibia", "code": "NAM"}, {"id": 218, "name": "Nauru", "code": "NRU"}, {"id": 107, "name": "Nepal", "code": "NPL"}, {"id": 5, "name": "Netherlands", "code": "NLD"}, {"id": 106, "name": "New Zealand", "code": "NZL"}, {"id": 105, "name": "Nicaragua", "code": "NIC"}, {"id": 104, "name": "Niger", "code": "NER"}, {"id": 103, "name": "Nigeria", "code": "NGA"}, {"id": 294, "name": "North America", "code": "OWID_NAM"}, {"id": 66, "name": "North Macedonia", "code": "MKD"}, {"id": 102, "name": "Norway", "code": "NOR"}, {"id": 277, "name": "Oceania", "code": "OWID_OCE"}, {"id": 217, "name": "Oman", "code": "OMN"}, {"id": 101, "name": "Pakistan", "code": "PAK"}, {"id": 224, "name": "Palau", "code": "PLW"}, {"id": 140, "name": "Palestine", "code": "PSE"}, {"id": 100, "name": "Panama", "code": "PAN"}, {"id": 99, "name": "Papua New Guinea", "code": "PNG"}, {"id": 98, "name": "Paraguay", "code": "PRY"}, {"id": 97, "name": "Peru", "code": "PER"}, {"id": 96, "name": "Philippines", "code": "PHL"}, {"id": 11, "name": "Poland", "code": "POL"}, {"id": 95, "name": "Portugal", "code": "PRT"}, {"id": 226, "name": "Qatar", "code": "QAT"}, {"id": 245, "name": "Reunion", "code": "REU"}, {"id": 92, "name": "Romania", "code": "ROU"}, {"id": 12, "name": "Russia", "code": "RUS"}, {"id": 91, "name": "Rwanda", "code": "RWA"}, {"id": 227, "name": "Saint Kitts and Nevis", "code": "KNA"}, {"id": 229, "name": "Saint Lucia", "code": "LCA"}, {"id": 230, "name": "Saint Vincent and the Grenadines", "code": "VCT"}, {"id": 239, "name": "Samoa", "code": "WSM"}, {"id": 231, "name": "San Marino", "code": "SMR"}, {"id": 232, "name": "Sao Tome and Principe", "code": "STP"}, {"id": 90, "name": "Saudi Arabia", "code": "SAU"}, {"id": 89, "name": "Senegal", "code": "SEN"}, {"id": 88, "name": "Serbia", "code": "SRB"}, {"id": 233, "name": "Seychelles", "code": "SYC"}, {"id": 87, "name": "Sierra Leone", "code": "SLE"}, {"id": 86, "name": "Singapore", "code": "SGP"}, {"id": 85, "name": "Slovakia", "code": "SVK"}, {"id": 83, "name": "Slovenia", "code": "SVN"}, {"id": 195, "name": "Solomon Islands", "code": "SLB"}, {"id": 82, "name": "Somalia", "code": "SOM"}, {"id": 81, "name": "South Africa", "code": "ZAF"}, {"id": 295, "name": "South America", "code": "OWID_SAM"}, {"id": 351656, "name": "South Asia (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 127, "name": "South Korea", "code": "KOR"}, {"id": 258, "name": "South Sudan", "code": "SSD"}, {"id": 9, "name": "Spain", "code": "ESP"}, {"id": 141, "name": "Sri Lanka", "code": "LKA"}, {"id": 351654, "name": "Sub-Saharan Africa (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 79, "name": "Sudan", "code": "SDN"}, {"id": 234, "name": "Suriname", "code": "SUR"}, {"id": 10, "name": "Sweden", "code": "SWE"}, {"id": 7, "name": "Switzerland", "code": "CHE"}, {"id": 77, "name": "Syria", "code": "SYR"}, {"id": 198, "name": "Taiwan", "code": "TWN"}, {"id": 76, "name": "Tajikistan", "code": "TJK"}, {"id": 64, "name": "Tanzania", "code": "TZA"}, {"id": 75, "name": "Thailand", "code": "THA"}, {"id": 74, "name": "Togo", "code": "TGO"}, {"id": 235, "name": "Tonga", "code": "TON"}, {"id": 73, "name": "Trinidad and Tobago", "code": "TTO"}, {"id": 71, "name": "Tunisia", "code": "TUN"}, {"id": 70, "name": "Turkey", "code": "TUR"}, {"id": 69, "name": "Turkmenistan", "code": "TKM"}, {"id": 237, "name": "Tuvalu", "code": "TUV"}, {"id": 68, "name": "Uganda", "code": "UGA"}, {"id": 67, "name": "Ukraine", "code": "UKR"}, {"id": 72, "name": "United Arab Emirates", "code": "ARE"}, {"id": 1, "name": "United Kingdom", "code": "GBR"}, {"id": 13, "name": "United States", "code": "USA"}, {"id": 459, "name": "Upper-middle-income countries", "code": "OWID_UMC"}, {"id": 63, "name": "Uruguay", "code": "URY"}, {"id": 62, "name": "Uzbekistan", "code": "UZB"}, {"id": 221, "name": "Vanuatu", "code": "VUT"}, {"id": 238, "name": "Venezuela", "code": "VEN"}, {"id": 351659, "name": "Very high human development (UNDP)", "code": null}, {"id": 84, "name": "Vietnam", "code": "VNM"}, {"id": 355, "name": "World", "code": "OWID_WRL"}, {"id": 61, "name": "Yemen", "code": "YEM"}, {"id": 60, "name": "Zambia", "code": "ZMB"}, {"id": 80, "name": "Zimbabwe", "code": "ZWE"}]}}, "origins": [{"id": 218, "title": "Human Capital in the Long Run", "description": "Datasets on estimated school enrollment ratios from 1820 to 2010 and estimated educational attainment for the total, female, and male populations from 1870 to 2010. The estimates are available in five-year intervals for 111 countries.\n\nDatasets were last updated in 2021 September. The research provides insightful analysis on the progression and trends of educational attainment over a long historical period, offering a comprehensive understanding of educational developments globally.\n", "producer": "Lee and Lee", "citationFull": "Lee, Jong-Wha and Hanol Lee, 2016, \u201cHuman Capital in the Long Run,\u201d Journal of Development Economics, vol. 122, pp. 147-169.", "urlMain": "https://barrolee.github.io/BarroLeeDataSet/DataLeeLee.html", "dateAccessed": "2023-11-20", "datePublished": "2016", "license": {"url": "https://barrolee.github.io/BarroLeeDataSet/OUPProj.html", "name": "2021 by Robert J. Barro and Jong-Wha Lee."}}, {"id": 3545, "title": "Human Development Report", "description": "Artificial intelligence (AI) has broken into a dizzying gallop. While AI feats grab headlines, they privilege technology in a make-believe vacuum, obscuring what really matters: people's choices.\n\nThe choices that people have and can realize, within ever expanding freedoms, are essential to human development, whose goal is for people to live lives they value and have reason to value. A world with AI is flush with choices the exercise of which is both a matter of human development and a means to advance it.\n\nGoing forward, development depends less on what AI can do\u2014not on how human-like it is perceived to be\u2014and more on mobilizing people's imaginations to reshape economies and societies to make the most of it. Instead of trying vainly to predict what will happen, the 2025's Human Development Report asks what choices can be made so that new development pathways for all countries dot the horizon, helping everyone have a shot at thriving in a world with AI.\n\nFor more details, refer to https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/documentation-and-downloads", "producer": "UNDP, Human Development Report", "citationFull": "UNDP (United Nations Development Programme). 2025. Human Development Report 2025: A matter of choice: People and possibilities in the age of AI. New York.", "attributionShort": "UNDP", "urlMain": "https://hdr.undp.org/", "urlDownload": "https://hdr.undp.org/sites/default/files/2025_HDR/HDR25_Composite_indices_complete_time_series.csv", "dateAccessed": "2025-05-07", "datePublished": "2025-05-06", "license": {"url": "https://hdr.undp.org/copyright-and-terms-use", "name": "CC BY 3.0 IGO"}}]}