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Dataset · UIS

School Life Expectancy

50 years, 1971–2024 · 77 countries · 3 measures

School life expectancy is the number of years of education, from primary to tertiary, that a child entering school today can expect to receive at current enrolment rates. It is UNESCO’s own version of the question UNDP’s expected years of schooling answers.

This site holds every year from 1971 to 2024, read from UIS’s own data and stored exactly as published.

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School Life Expectancy · the file

Newest
School Life Expectancy, 2024
Held
50 years · 4,324 rows
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0

0150 years

Every year

Newest first. Each opens the full table for that year, and each downloads as a CSV.

1971bar height: countries covered, up to 1242024
Every year of School Life Expectancy held on this site, newest first, with its download files.
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
School Life Expectancy, 2024Newest77+16 −44September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2023105+17 −15September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2022103+10 −12September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2021105+9 −9September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2020105+7 −11September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2019109+8 −12September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2018113+8 −12September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2017117+7 −7September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2016117+11 −18September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2015124+18 −10September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2014116+20 −14September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2013110+16 −26September 10, 2026CSV
Show all 50 years
YearCountriesChangeReadDownload
School Life Expectancy, 2012120+15 −19September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2011124+16 −9September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2010117+15 −19September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2009121+21 −13September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2008113+16 −14September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2007111+16 −15September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2006110+7 −12September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2005115+15 −15September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2004115+22 −16September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2003109+21 −19September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2002107+15 −11September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 2001103+45 −16September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 200074+21 −17September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 199970+36 −17September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 199551+13 −15September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 199353+11 −16September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 199258+11 −16September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 199163+16 −16September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 199063+12 −12September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198963+16 −10September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198857+7 −15September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198765+11 −22September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198676+21 −13September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198568+7 −15September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198476+18 −6September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198364+12 −12September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198264+10 −20September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198174+23 −12September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 198063+13 −11September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197961+16 −13September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197858+6 −13September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197765+11 −8September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197662+13 −8September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197557+5 −7September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197459+8 −11September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197362+10 −9September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197261+3 −13September 10, 2026CSV
School Life Expectancy, 197171—September 10, 2026CSV

Every year in one file, one row per country per year: school-life-expectancy-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv

025 columns

What’s in the file

Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.

Every column in the newest file of School Life Expectancy: what it holds, how it is stored, and its range.
ColumnWhat it holdsStored asRange, 2024DistinctEmptySpread
CountrycountryNameThe country’s name, as this file spells it.Text—770
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifierThe ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it.Text · 3 letters—770
School life expectancy, primary to tertiary (years)school_life_expectancyHeadlineThe headline figure: School life expectancy, primary to tertiary (years).Number · up to 14 decimals7.478Burkina Faso21.007Monacomiddle 14.593770
FemalefemaleWomenThe same measure, for women.Number · up to 15 decimals7.675Burkina Faso22.040Monacomiddle 14.979770
MalemaleMenThe same measure, for men.Number · up to 14 decimals7.289Burkina Faso19.997Monacomiddle 14.268770

Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.

03205 countries across every year

Who is covered

How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.

All regions
Countries in each year of School Life Expectancy, by continent.
201320142015201620172018201920202021202220232024
Africa22262519201413131312129
Americas212326201717171514151712
Asia323131353638353336353425
Europe343540404242414140383825
Oceania112322332346
All11011612411711711310910510510310577

The newest 12 of 50 years.

Who joined and who left

  • 2024
    + Aruba+ Brazil+ Barbados+ Fiji+ Ghana+ Guyana+ Honduras+ Kiribati+ Monaco+ Marshall Islands+ Mauritius+ Oman+ Saudi Arabia+ San Marino+ Serbia+ Uzbekistan− Angola− Argentina− Belgium− Bosnia and Herzegovina− Bermuda− Brunei− Canada− Cameroon− Czechia− Ecuador− United Kingdom− Georgia− Greece− Guatemala− Croatia− Indonesia− Iceland− Italy− Japan− Kenya− Cambodia− Laos− Lebanon− Saint Lucia− Sri Lanka− North Macedonia− Malta− Montenegro− Mongolia− Nicaragua− Netherlands− Puerto Rico− Portugal− Palestine− Romania− Russia− Senegal− Singapore− Slovenia− Turks and Caicos Islands− Tonga− Türkiye− Uruguay− South Africa
  • 2023
    + Angola+ Bermuda+ Brunei+ Cook Islands+ Cuba+ Egypt+ Guatemala+ Kenya+ Kyrgyzstan+ Cambodia+ Nicaragua+ Netherlands+ Philippines+ Puerto Rico+ Russia+ Tonga+ Ukraine− Benin− Brazil− Colombia− Ghana− Ireland− Iran− Monaco− Maldives− Marshall Islands− Namibia− Saudi Arabia− Serbia− United States− Uzbekistan− Vietnam
  • 2022
    + Bahrain+ Algeria+ Ecuador+ Iran+ Saint Lucia+ Monaco+ Maldives+ Marshall Islands+ Rwanda+ Turks and Caicos Islands− Botswana− Cuba− Kyrgyzstan− Cambodia− Liechtenstein− Malawi− Netherlands− Oman− Philippines− Suriname− Tanzania− Ukraine
  • 2021
    + Bhutan+ Botswana+ Cameroon+ Cambodia+ Sri Lanka+ Malawi+ Pakistan+ Suriname+ Vietnam− Brunei− Ecuador− Egypt− Iran− Saint Lucia− Monaco− Mauritania− Mauritius− Tonga
  • 2020
    + Benin+ Bangladesh+ Dominican Republic+ Egypt+ Iran+ Netherlands+ Tonga− Bahrain− Costa Rica− Guatemala− Honduras− Cambodia− Madagascar− Maldives− Marshall Islands− Pakistan− Russia− Rwanda
  • 2019
    + Côte d’Ivoire+ Guatemala+ Honduras+ Maldives+ Marshall Islands+ Nepal+ Senegal+ Turkmenistan− Afghanistan− Burundi− Bangladesh− Bhutan− Cabo Verde− Egypt− Grenada− Sri Lanka− Myanmar− Netherlands− Puerto Rico− North Korea
  • 2018
    + Afghanistan+ United Arab Emirates+ Bhutan+ Ecuador+ Myanmar+ Puerto Rico+ North Korea+ British Virgin Islands− Côte d’Ivoire− Dominican Republic− Honduras− Iran− Lesotho− Mali− Mozambique− Niger− Nepal− Peru− Togo− Vietnam
  • 2017
    + United Kingdom+ Cambodia+ Lesotho+ Morocco+ North Macedonia+ Mozambique+ Togo− Benin− Cameroon− Marshall Islands− Panama− Puerto Rico− Tunisia− British Virgin Islands

Not in this dataset · 20 places this site covers

UIS gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.

04Provenance

Where it comes from

The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.

The site’s method
  1. 1 · Publisher

    UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)

  2. 2 · Their file

    School Life Expectancy 2024

  3. 3 · Read by this site

    September 10, 2026

    Imported by a script that parses each figure and writes it down unrounded.
  4. 4 · Stored as

    50 files, one per year

    Each downloads as a CSV, or every year together as school-life-expectancy-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
  5. 5 · Used on

    Its statistic page, and every profile it measures

Precision

The headline is stored to 14 decimals, as published.

Rounded by this site

Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.

Changed by this site

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.

From the UNESCO Institute for Statistics data API. Years reporting fewer than 50 countries are left out. Female and male figures are stored beside the headline.

05Reuse

Licence and credit

What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.

Every publisher’s terms

Licence · checked September 5, 2026

CC BY-SA 4.0

  • Share and redistribute it
  • Adapt it and build on it
  • Use it commercially
  • Credit the publisher
  • Say what you changed
  • Publish anything adapted from it under the same licence

Share, adapt and use commercially with credit — and anything you publish that adapts it must carry the same licence.

A credit line

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), School Life Expectancy, via Nations Inquiry.

Cite this dataset

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). School Life Expectancy, 1971–2024 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/school-life-expectancy

The publisher’s own citation: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. UIS Data Browser. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.

06Questions

School Life Expectancy: questions and answers

What is the School Life Expectancy?

School life expectancy is the number of years of education, from primary to tertiary, that a child entering school today can expect to receive at current enrolment rates. It is UNESCO’s own version of the question UNDP’s expected years of schooling answers.

Which years of the School Life Expectancy can I download?

All 50, from 1971 to 2024, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.

Does UIS rank countries on it?

No. UIS publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.

Can I use it commercially?

Yes, under CC BY-SA 4.0, with credit to UIS. The licence text is linked on this page.

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