Number of years of compulsory education
Rankings at a glance
Highest 10 · Number of years of compulsory education (2024)
Among the 89 countries with 2024 data, Armenia has the highest number of years of compulsory education at 12 years in 2024, followed by Bolivia (12 years) and the Cook Islands (12 years). The top 5 is rounded off by Curaçao (12 years) and Dominica (12 years). Further down, Ecuador (12 years) and Gibraltar (12 years) hold the next two spots. Grenada (12 years), Italy (12 years), and the Marshall Islands (12 years) round out the top ten. Three of the top ten are in the Caribbean.
Rank changes
How number of years of compulsory education changed between 2019 and 2024
Historical trends
Key terms
- Literacy rate
- — Percentage of population who can read and write a short, simple statement about everyday life.
- Gross enrollment ratio
- — Total enrollment in a level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the eligible school-age population.
- Completion rate
- — Percentage of a cohort of children who complete a given level of education.
- Out-of-school rate
- — Percentage of children of official school age who are not enrolled in school.
- Pupil-teacher ratio
- — Enrolled pupils per TRAINED teacher at a given level of education. It measures how thinly trained teachers are spread, not average class size: the ratio rises when fewer teachers meet the training requirement, whatever happens to the number of pupils in a room.
- Educational attainment
- — Highest level of education completed by the population aged 25 and over.
Frequently asked questions
- Which country has the highest number of years of compulsory education?
- Armenia has the highest number of years of compulsory education among the 89 countries with 2024 data at 12 years as of 2024, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Which country has the lowest number of years of compulsory education?
- Vanuatu has the lowest number of years of compulsory education among the 89 countries with 2024 data at 0 years as of 2024, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.





