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Data for 1999

Mean Years of Schooling, 1999

1999, as UNDP Human Development Report Office’s 2025 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Mean Years of Schooling, 1999 covers 159 countries. United States is highest, at 12.9950; Niger is lowest, at 1.1144. The middle country reads 7.3742. Against 1998, 156 values changed (149 up, 7 down), 3 countries joined.

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Mean Years of Schooling · Data for 1999

HighestUnited States

12.9950

LowestNiger

1.1144

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end.

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Mean Years of Schooling, 1999, as published. UNDP Human Development Report Office ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 159 countries · select a heading to sort

Mean Years of Schooling, 1999: every country, as published by UNDP Human Development Report Office.
derived
1United StatesUSANorthern America12.9950
2New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand12.5360
3CanadaCANNorthern America12.3120
4DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe12.3100
5GermanyDEUWestern Europe12.2189
6NorwayNORNorthern Europe12.0443
7JapanJPNEastern Asia12.0405
8EstoniaESTNorthern Europe11.9206
9RussiaRUSEastern Europe11.7661
10NetherlandsNLDWestern Europe11.7148
11IcelandISLNorthern Europe11.6080
12LatviaLVANorthern Europe11.3305
13AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand11.2955
14SwedenSWENorthern Europe11.2633
15FinlandFINNorthern Europe11.1946
16PolandPOLEastern Europe11.1155
17LiechtensteinLIEWestern Europe11.0589
18AustriaAUTWestern Europe11.0157
19BahamasBHSCaribbean10.9370
20TurkmenistanTKMCentral Asia10.9249
21CzechiaCZEEastern Europe10.7993
22SamoaWSMPolynesia10.7716
23LithuaniaLTUNorthern Europe10.7641
24UkraineUKREastern Europe10.7126
25TajikistanTJKCentral Asia10.6931

02In 1999

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1United States12.9950
  2. 2New Zealand12.5360
  3. 3Canada12.3120
  4. 4Denmark12.3100
  5. 5Germany12.2189

Lowest

  1. 159Niger1.1144
  2. 158Mali1.1539
  3. 157Yemen1.2145
  4. 156Afghanistan1.2289
  5. 155Djibouti1.4290

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 7.3742. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

031998 → 1999

Since 1998

What changed between 1998 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +3 / −0countries joined / left
  • 156values changed, of 156 in both
  • 149 · 7rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

+ Angola+ Madagascar+ Solomon Islands

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored
  • One year of the 2025 release

    Every year in this series comes from UNDP Human Development Report Office’s 2025 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 1999.

  • The position is ours

    UNDP Human Development Report Office publishes values only; the order is this site’s.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 159 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

UNDP Human Development Report Office (1999). Mean Years of Schooling, 1999 [data set], describing 1999. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/mean-years-schooling/1999

0634 held

Other years

07Questions

Mean Years of Schooling, 1999: questions and answers

Which country has the highest mean years of schooling in Mean Years of Schooling, 1999?

United States, at 12.9950, of the 159 countries in the file.

What year does Mean Years of Schooling, 1999 describe?

1999.

How many countries does Mean Years of Schooling, 1999 cover?

159.

Where can I download Mean Years of Schooling, 1999?

On this page, as a CSV file holding every value exactly as published, or from the publisher’s own site, linked below.

Is Mean Years of Schooling, 1999 the newest?

No. The newest held here is Mean Years of Schooling, 2023.

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