Education data highlights

Explore a list of useful statistics on education by theme, both globally and for GPE partner countries.

Global data on why education is a good investment
Global data on the missed opportunities due to the lack of education
Data for GPE partner countries

Climate change and education

  • If every child received a full secondary school education by 2030, 200,000 disaster–related deaths could be averted in the following two decades through improved risk awareness.
    Source: UNESCO, 2016
  • 1 billion children are at extremely high risk of the impacts of climate change. That is nearly half of all children in the world.
    Source: UNICEF, 2021
  • Climate change could displace more than 216 million people by 2050, forcing them out of their homes and communities, interrupting their schooling, causing psychosocial stress and straining education provision at their destination.
    Source: World Bank, 2021

COVID-19 and education

  • At the peak of school closures, 1.6 billion learners were out of school, with 810 million in low-income countries.
    Source: UNESCO
  • Learning losses from missed in-person schooling amounting to 2 trillion hours of lost learning.
    Source: UNICEF, 2022
  • On June 1st 2020, GPE doubled its COVID-19 emergency funding window to US$500 million to help lower-income countries mitigate both the immediate and long-term impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on education.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • More than 80% of the 66 accelerated grants to help countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 included initiatives that targeted children with disabilities to ensure learning continuity.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • On April 1st 2020, just three weeks after COVID-19 was declared a pandemic, GPE unlocked US$250 million to help 67 lower-income countries mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on education.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • On March 25, 2020, GPE provided US$8.8 million to UNICEF to kickstart education systems’ response to COVID-19 in 87 lower-income countries.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • COVID-19 education grants have provided over $35 million across GPE partner countries to help teachers adapt to new distance learning methods.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Content for remote learning was provided to teachers by 58% of all countries ranging from 81% in Europe and Northern America to just 29% in sub-Saharan Africa.
    Source: World Teachers’ Day 2021 Fact Sheet, p.7
  • School closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic are expected to reduce the learning-adjusted years of education across developing regions by roughly a third to a full year.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.2
  • The global learning loss is equivalent to 0.7 year of lost learning, which could translate into an annual reduction of 6.5% in the future earnings of current students once engaged in a job, as a result of lower productivity due to fewer cognitive skills. This reduction in earnings prospects could contract national income growth by 2.2% each year of working life (45 years on average) of the generation hit by the pandemic.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.2
  • Before the COVID-19 pandemic, 6 out of 10 students in low and middle-income countries could not read and understand simple texts by age 10. Now, 7 out of 10 cannot read (due to the impact of school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic).
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.18
  • Without adequate remediation, learning loss will likely translate into a huge negative impact on the global economy - up to a 0.68 percentage point reduction of GDP growth.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p.18
  • 41% of lower income countries reduced their spending on education after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, with an average decline in spending of 13.5%.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.4
  • Global learning losses from COVID-19 could cost this generation of students close to US$21 trillion in lifetime earnings, which far exceeds the original estimate of US$10 trillion made immediately after the pandemic outbreak and even the US$17 trillion estimated in 2021 (Azevedo et al. 2022).
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.4
  • Total global education spending over the last 10 years before COVID-19 increased steadily, from US$4 trillion in 2010 to US$4.9 trillion in 2018, and then stagnated with the onset of the pandemic.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2022. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p.10
  • 13 million girls could be forced into early marriage as their parents grapple with the economic fallout of COVID-19.
    Source: World Bank, 2020

Domestic financing

  • 60% of partner countries increased their share of education expenditure or maintained it at 20% or above.
    Source: GPE results report 2023, p.3
  • GPE partner countries (43 with data) allocated 18.6% of their budget for education in 2021.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Children in high income countries received an education worth 155 times more (US$8,532 per child in 2022 constant US dollars) than the education received by children in low-income countries (US$55 per child in low-income countries).
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2024. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p. 7
  • Globally, education spending as share of GDP has decreased from 4.5% in 2010 to 4.3% in 2022.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2024. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p. 6

Early childhood education

Economic growth

  • Global evidence has shown that each additional year of schooling that a person completes yields 10% more income on average, which is higher than the average annual returns on the US stock market.
    Source: Education Finance Watch 2024. World Bank, GEMR, UIS. p. 22
  • A change of 1% in learning is associated with a change of 7.2% in annual growth.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p. 4
  • Higher individual earnings translate to higher spending and increased tax returns, which can be reinvested by governments, meaning that education is, essentially, a self-financing investment.
    Source: Deming (2022). Four facts about human capital. Journal of Economic Perspectives—Volume 36, Number 3 - Summer 2022.
  • Education builds skills and fosters creativity, and educated people tend to innovate more and create new businesses and technologies, which in turn boost private sector development and generate more employment.
    Source: Annabi, N. (2017). Investments in education: What are the productivity gains? Journal of Policy Modelling, 39(3), 499-518.
  • Teaching according to learning level with technology support for one year can improve learning by 0.27 standard deviation, which has the potential to increase students’ future earnings by 5.5% while yielding US$1,724 in future benefits per beneficiary at a student cost per year of US$26.6.
    Source: Education finance watch 2023. p. 20

Education in crisis situations

  • An estimated 222 million crisis-affected children and adolescents are in need of education support, with 78 million out of school.
    Source: Education Cannot Wait, 2022
  • 1 in 3 children and young people living in countries affected by conflict or disaster are not in school.
    Source: UNICEF, 2018
  • 74% of children completed primary school in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict in 2021 compared to 66% in 2013. 52% of children completed lower secondary school in these countries in 2021.
    Source: GPE Results Report 2023, p. 89
  • $435 million in cofinancing was unlocked for partner countries affected by fragility and conflict through the GPE Multiplier and GPE Match in 2022.
    Source: GPE results at a glance. June 2024. p. 2
  • 106 million more children enrolled in school in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict since 2002.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • 163 million children were supported by GPE in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict since fiscal year 2022.
    Source: GPE Results Report 2023, p. 73
  • 52% of GPE funding have been spent in partner countries affected by fragility and conflict.
    Source: GPE Results Report 2022, p. 136
  • As of August 2023, GPE has invested $1.1 billion to strengthen education systems in 17 countries where refugees have access to school.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • Since 2013, 68 GPE partner countries have accessed a total of US$857 million to mitigate the impact of crises on children’s education, including natural disasters, armed conflict, forced displacement, and health emergencies.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • 34 GPE partner countries are affected by fragility or conflict in fiscal year 2023.
    Source: List of GPE partner countries affected by fragility and conflict
  • GPE partner countries are home to almost 4 million refugee children, about 45% of the world’s refugee children population.
    Source: UNHCR and GPE data as of 2016. UNHCR data only accounts for refugees for whom demographic data is available.
  • If the enrollment rate for secondary schooling is 10 percentage points higher than the average, the risk of war is reduced by about 3 percentage points (a decline in the risk from 11.5% to 8.6%).
    Source: World Bank. Understanding Civil War, 2005 , p. 16
  • Each year of education reduces the risk of conflict by around 20%.
    Source: World Bank. Doing well out of war (Paul Collier), 1999 , p. 5
  • Nearly one out of five children around the world is living or fleeing in conflict.
    Source: UNOCHA, Global Humanitarian Overview 2024. December 2023, p. 5
  • Education is one of the least funded humanitarian areas, receiving just 3% of global humanitarian financing in 2021.
    Source: Geneva Global Hub for Education In Emergencies, 2022
  • Nearly 40 million children a year have their education interrupted by disasters and subsequent disease outbreaks following extreme weather events.
    Source: Theirworld, 2018
  • In 2021, an estimated 449 million children – or 1 in 6 – were living in conflict zones.
    Source: Save the Children, 2022
  • Children account for 30 % of the world’s population, but 40 % of all forcibly displaced people.
    Source: UNHCR, 2022
  • Close to half of all refugee children – 48 % – remain out of school. Gross enrollment rates for the 2020- 21 school year stood at 42% for pre-primary, 68% for primary, and 37% for secondary.
    Source: UNHCR, 2022
  • Just 5 % of refugee students are currently enrolled in university.
    Source: UNHCR
  • The average annual cost of educating refugees is less than 5% of public education expenditure in developing nations hosting 85% of the world’s refugees
    Source: World Bank and UNHCR. The Global Cost and Inclusive Refugee Education, 2021
  • Developing regions hosted 92% of the world’s school-age refugees in 2017.
    Source: UNHCR. Turn the tide: refugee education in crisis (2018), p. 14
  • An estimated 128 million primary and secondary-aged children are out of school in crisis-affected countries, including 67 million girls.
    Source: Plan International, Left Out, Left Behind: Adolescent girls’ secondary education in crises, Plan International, UK, 2019, p. 30
  • There were more than 5,000 incidents of attacks on education and cases of military use of schools between January 2020 and December 2021.
    Source: GCPEA Education under attack, 2022, p. 11
  • In the past five years, funding requests for education in emergencies have increased by 21%.
    Source: 2017 GEM Report Policy Paper 31, p. 7
  • At the end of 2022, 108 million people were forcibly displaced due to conflict, persecution or natural disasters.
    Source: UNHCR, 2022
  • At the end of 2022, an estimated 23.3 million refugees (67%) were living in exile for at least five consecutive years in host countries.
    Source: UNHCR, 2023. 2022 Global Trends Report
  • School enrollment rates for girls living in forced displacement are far below national rates.
    Source: INEE, 2021
  • 20 years on average: length of forced displacement due to crises and conflicts.
    Source: UNHCR, 2016, Global trends – Forced displacement in 2015, p. 20

Gender equality

Inclusive education

  • Children with disabilities are 42% less likely to have essential reading and numeracy skills than other girls and boys.
    Source: GPE annual report 2023, p.23
  • In 2020, GPE offered 66 accelerated grants to help countries respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 80% of them included initiatives that target children with disabilities to ensure learning continuity, such as accessible remote lessons, print materials in Braille, assistive devices and the promotion of supplementary support programs.
    Source: GPE Secretariat
  • 67% of partner countries reported key education statistics disaggregated by children with disabilities.
    Source: GPE results report 2022, p.7
  • In 2022, 62,163 children with disabilities were supported through 17 grants that reported these data.
    Source: GPE results report 2022, p.72
  • Globally, the share of schools with adapted infrastructure and materials for students with disabilities increased at all levels of education, and most significantly in upper secondary from 46% in 2015 to 56% in 2020.
    Source: 2023 Global Education Monitoring Report: SDG 4 mid-term progress review. p.8
  • Approximately one billion people in the world are living with a disability, with at least 1 in 10 being children and 80% living in lower-income countries.
    Source: World Report on Disability
  • The literacy rate for adults with disabilities is 3%. For women with disabilities the literacy rate is even lower, at 1%
    Source: UNGEI. Still left behind: Pathways to inclusive education for girls with disabilities, 2017. p.12
  • In low-income countries, less than half the number of children from poorest households complete primary education, compared to children from the richest households.
    Source: United Nations, 2020

Learning and literacy

Peace and security

Quality teaching