Educational Attainment Statistics. 2018-2020

In 2020, 33.4% of the population aged 15 and over had tertiary education, 28.2% had completed lower secondary education, 23.5% had upper secondary education and 14.8% had at most only primary education.

Compared to 2018, the starting year of the series, the percentage of the population aged 15 and over with tertiary education increased by 1.9 points, while the percentage of the population with at most primary education decreased by 1.4 points.

By sex, there is a higher percentage of women (16.9%) than men (12.6%) who have attained at most primary education, and the same is true for higher education qualifications (34.8% of women and 31.8% of men).

By age, the percentage of the population with higher education qualifications was 15.0% in the population aged 65 and over and reached 46.5% in the population aged 25 to 44. At the other extreme, the population with at most primary education represented 40.7% of the population aged 65 and over and only 5.3% of the population aged 25 to 44.

By territorial areas, Les Terres de l'Ebre is the area with the highest percentage of the population aged 15 and over who have achieved at most primary education qualifications (19.1%) and first stage secondary education (35.9%). L’Alt Pirineu and Aran is the area with the highest percentage of graduates in second-stage secondary education (26%) and the Metropolitan Area the one with the highest percentage of graduates in higher education (36.2%).

La Terra Alta is the county with the highest percentage of the population aged 15 and over who have attained at most primary education qualifications (23.9%) and lower secondary education qualifications (38.1%). Aran has the highest percentage of second-stage secondary education graduates (28.8%), and El Barcelonès is the county with the highest percentage of higher education graduates (40.0%).

At the municipal level, in 31 of the 947 municipalities in Catalonia, at least 25% of the population aged 15 and over had attained at most primary education. On the other hand, in 731 municipalities at least 25% of the population aged 15 and over had higher education.

Idescat publishes the final data of the Statistics on population studies for the years 2019 and 2020 and extends the statistical series for the year 2018. The reference population for these statistics is the population aged 15 years old and over. The results are disseminated annually by sex, age and nationality, and broken down territorially by provinces, areas of the Territorial Plan, counties and Aran, municipalities and census groupings.