Indicators databases

Indicators values on education systems are available in two main databases:

OECD.stat database

A developing database of statistics developed by OECD, including the indicators published in Education at a Glance. Values can be searched by country, year, and subject. Complementary to these datasets, trend indicators series are also available. This online database may not always be comparable due to changes in definitions and coverage that were made as a result of meetings with OECD countries.

In this database, you can access the indicators of Education at a Glance. For each of the following indicators, you can access different queries so as to display information in a more convenient manner. 

 

• Graduation and entry rates
• Profile of graduates and new entrants
• Distribution of graduates and entrants by field
• Enrolment rate by age
• Share of enrolment by gender, programme orientation and mode of study
• Share of enrolment by type of institution
• Share of international students enrolled by country of origin
• Share of international students by field of education
• Student-teacher ratio and average class size
• Distribution of teachers by age and gender
• Educational finance indicators

Raw data databases

OECD.stat database

This database also includes raw data used for the computation of indicators published in Education at a Glance. The database is compiled on the basis of national administrative sources, reported by Ministries of Education or National Statistical offices according to international standards, definitions and classifications. The collected annual data cover the outputs of educational institutions, the policy levers that shape educational outputs, the human and financial resources invested in education, structural characteristics of education systems, and the economic and social outcomes of education.

In this database, in the section Education and Skills, you have access to the following datasets:

Student enrolment refers to all students by level of education, including students in adult education programmes (from primary to post-secondary non-tertiary level of education). The number of students enrolled refers to the count of students studying in the beginning of the school / academic year. Each student enrolled in the education programmes covered by the corresponding category is counted once and only once. Data on enrolment are available with the following breakdowns:

• Enrolment by age
• Enrolment by field
• Enrolment by type of institutions

Foreign and international /mobile students enrolled. "International students" tries to better categorize international mobility of students than foreign students. Here, foreign students are defined as non-citizens of the country in which they study, and international students are defined either as students who are not permanent or usual residents of their country of study or alternatively as students who obtained their prior education in a different country.

New entrants are students who are entering any programme leading to a recognised qualification at this level of education for the first time, irrespective of whether the students enter the programme at the beginning or at an advanced stage of the programme. Individuals who are returning to study at a level following a period of absence from studying at that same level are not considered to be new entrants. Foreign students who are enrolling for the first time in the country for which the data are reported are counted as new entrants, regardless of their previous education in other countries. Data on new entrants are available with the following breakdowns:

• New entrants by age
• New entrants by field

Graduates from upper secondary to tertiary education and advanced research programmes) are those who successfully complete an educational programme during the reference year. Successful completion is defined according to the graduation requirements established by each country. Data on graduates are available with the following breakdowns:

• Graduates by age
• Graduates by field
• International graduates by origin

Education personnel includes the following categories: Instructional personnel (classroom teachers, teacher aides and teaching / research assistants; Professional support for students (pedagogical and academic support, and health and social support); Management / quality control / administration (school level management, higher level management, school level administrative personnel, and higher level administrative personnel); and Maintenance and operations personnel. Data on Education personnel are available with the following breakdowns:

• Educational personnel by age, covering teaching staff by age and gender.
• Management educational personnel and teacher aides  covering number of management personnel and teacher aides in educational institutions by gender and intensity of work

Expenditure on education refers to funds for education, either from public or private funds, on public and private educational institutions. Data on expenditure on education are available with the following breakdowns:

• Expenditure by funding source and transaction type. All entities that provide funds for education, either initially or as final payers, are classified as either governmental (public) sources or non-governmental (private) sources, the sole exception being "international agencies and other foreign sources", which are treated as a separate category. There are three types of financial transactions: Direct expenditure on educational institutions; Transfers to students or households and to other private entities; and Households' expenditure on education outside educational institutions.
• Expenditure by nature and resource category. The nature of expenditure distinguishes between current and capital expenditure. The resource category refers to service provider (public institutions, government-dependent private institutions, and independent private institutions, i.e. both educational and other institutions). These expenditure figures are intended to represent the total cost of services provided by each type of institution, without regard to sources of funds (whether they are public or private).
• Students aligned to finance  are complementary data and refer to students numbers aligned to the coverage of the Finance datasets (in the calendar year). These data should be used to compare data on enrolled students with expenditure data and compute expenditure per student.

Average class size  is available for primary and secondary levels of education and is  the total number of student divided by the total number of classes.

Population data  covers total population by country, year, age group and gender.

Archive database (ISCED 1997 data: 2000-2012)  includes data based on the previous ISCED classification (ISCED 97) for reference years 2000 to 2012. This data sets includes both indicators values published in previous editions of Education at a Glance as well as the related raw data.

 

Methodology

 ISCED 2011 Operational Manual: Guidelines for classifying National Education Programmes and related Qualifications

The structure of education systems varies widely between countries. In order to produce internationally comparable education statistics and indicators, it is necessary to have a framework to collect and report data on education programmes with a similar level of educational content. UNESCO's International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) is the reference classification for organising education programmes and related qualifications by education levels and fields.

ISCED 2011 is the second major revision of this classification (initially developed in the 1970s and first revised in 1997). It was adopted by the UNESCO General Conference in November 2011. Prepared jointly by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), the OECD and Eurostat, this operational manual provides guidelines and explanatory notes for the interpretation of the revised classification, by each educational level. It also includes country examples of programmes and qualifications that have been classified to ISCED 2011.

ISCED 2011 was implemented for the first time in data published in the 2015 edition of Education at a Glance.

OECD Handbook for Internationally Comparative Education Statistics: Concepts, Standards, Definitions and Classifications

This handbook presents all the definitions and conventions used in the underlying data collection, as well as the methodologies used to compile the published statistics and indicators derived from them.