Year-over-year change: -2.3 pp, trend down
5-year change: -4.3 pp, trend down
Nepal
Out of school, primary–lower secondary: 0.7%
View MorePercentage of primary and lower secondary school-age children not attending school
By country11ranked
19712025
2025
Rankings at a glance
Highest 10 · Percentage of primary and lower secondary school-age children not attending school (2025)
Among the 11 countries with 2025 data, Tokelau has the highest percentage of primary and lower secondary school-age children not attending school at 62.86% in 2025, followed by Algeria (33.47%) and Laos (21.57%). The top 5 is rounded off by the Gambia (16.07%) and Kazakhstan (5.62%). Further down, Nauru (5.05%) and Kyrgyzstan (2.88%) hold the next two spots. Uzbekistan (1.64%), Indonesia (1.22%), and Thailand (0.88%) round out the top ten. Across the top ten, Tokelau is 72× as high as Thailand (0.88%). Six of the top ten are in Asia, with three from South-Eastern Asia. Among these countries, Algeria saw the largest year-over-year change at +32.3 pp.
Rank changes
How percentage of primary and lower secondary school-age children not attending school changed between 2020 and 2025
2020and2025
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 lowest percentage of primary and lower secondary school-age children not attending school?
- Nepal has the lowest percentage of primary and lower secondary school-age children not attending school among the 11 countries with 2025 data at 0.7% as of 2025, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
- Which country has the highest percentage of primary and lower secondary school-age children not attending school?
- Tokelau has the highest percentage of primary and lower secondary school-age children not attending school among the 11 countries with 2025 data at 62.9% as of 2025, according to UNESCO Institute for Statistics.