The participation rate for education and training among 15–24-year-olds captures a stage of life when people may still be in secondary school, move into tertiary education, enter vocational training, or begin working while continuing to learn. UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) indicator PRYA.12MO.AG15T24 measures the percentage of people age 15–24, both sexes combined, who took part in formal or non-formal education or training during the previous 12 months. The source package identifies 2023 as the reference year and contains 94 national observations.
This is broader than a school-enrolment rate. Formal education includes the regular system of schools, colleges, universities, and comparable institutions, while non-formal education covers organized and sustained learning activities that do not follow the formal education ladder in exactly the same way. The indicator is therefore useful for examining how strongly young people remain connected to organized learning, but it does not directly measure the quality, duration, intensity, completion, or outcomes of that learning.
Table of Contents
What the 15–24 education and training participation rate measures
UIS classifies this measure under SDG indicator 4.3.1. For a selected age group, the numerator is the number of people who participated in formal or non-formal education or training within the specified period, while the denominator is the population of the same age group. This version focuses on ages 15–24 and combines females and males. The result is reported as a percentage.
Formal education generally follows the recognized sequence of schools, colleges, universities, and other institutions in the official education system. Non-formal education is also intentional and organized by an education provider, but it can take forms such as short courses, workshops, seminars, literacy programmes, life-skills courses, or work-skills training. National data sources and survey questions determine exactly which activities are captured, so the indicator should not be reduced to the question “What share of young people are in school?”
The official UIS definition of SDG 4.3.1 explains that the purpose is to show participation in education and training of all types. A higher value means a larger share of the selected age group has taken part in qualifying education or training during the reference period. It does not, by itself, show how much time was spent learning or whether the programme led to a qualification.
How to read the 94 national observations for 2023
The 2023 dataset linked to this writing package contains 94 national observations under the same indicator identity. That makes it suitable for describing the distribution among reporting countries and for comparing values once the country-level data are available. It should not be described as a complete ranking of every country in the world, because a country without a reported value is missing rather than a zero.
The 94 observations also cannot simply be averaged and presented as the percentage of all 15–24-year-olds worldwide. An unweighted country mean gives a small country the same statistical weight as a country with tens of millions of young people. A world or regional population-weighted rate requires age-specific population weights or an official aggregate designed for that purpose. Country comparisons and global population shares answer different questions.
What a high participation rate can indicate
A high value means that organized education and training reaches a relatively large share of 15–24-year-olds during a 12-month period. Because this age group spans the transition from school to tertiary study, vocational preparation, and work, a high rate can reflect broad access to multiple learning routes rather than only high secondary-school or university enrolment. It may capture continued participation even after some young adults have entered the labour market.
Yet a high participation rate is not a comprehensive quality score. A person who joined a short training course and a person enrolled in a long degree programme may both count as participants. The indicator does not tell us whether the programme was affordable, high quality, completed, relevant to employment, or successful in improving skills. Those questions require other measures. Participation is best treated as evidence of connection to organized learning, not as proof of educational effectiveness.
What a low participation rate can and cannot tell us
A low value means a larger share of 15–24-year-olds did not report participation in qualifying formal or non-formal education or training during the reference period. Possible contexts include early labour-market entry, school leaving, limited training provision, geographic access barriers, cost constraints, or an economy in which young people move into work without structured training. The indicator does not identify which of those explanations is responsible.
It also does not capture every form of learning. Young people may learn informally at work, study independently, use online materials outside an organized programme, or develop skills through activities that do not meet the statistical definition of formal or non-formal education. Therefore, a low rate should be interpreted as limited measured participation in organized education and training, not as evidence that no learning occurred.
Participation, employment, NEET status, and learning outcomes are different measures
| Measure | Main question | Why it differs from this participation rate |
|---|---|---|
| Formal education participation | Is the person taking part in the official education system? | Covers only one part of the broader formal-or-non-formal measure |
| Non-formal education or training | Is the person in an organized learning activity outside the standard formal ladder? | Programmes can vary greatly in duration and intensity |
| Employment | Is the person working or active in the labour market? | A person can work and study or train at the same time |
| NEET rate | Is the person outside employment, education, and training? | Includes employment status and is not simply 100 minus this indicator |
| Learning proficiency | What skills or knowledge has the learner achieved? | Measures outcomes rather than participation |
The NEET distinction is especially important. NEET combines information about both employment and education or training, while PRYA.12MO.AG15T24 measures participation in education and training only. A young person can be employed and still participate in workplace training, college, or another organized programme. For that reason, the two indicators do not form exact complements and should not be converted into one another without the underlying microdata.
Five cautions for cross-country comparisons
- Missing countries must remain missing. A country without a value cannot be treated as having zero participation.
- Countries can use different surveys and data-collection arrangements, so the way formal and non-formal activities are identified should be checked when interpreting close differences.
- Ages 15–24 cover very different life stages. The timing of school completion, tertiary entry, military service, and labour-market entry can change the composition of the group.
- An unweighted average of countries does not represent the world population age 15–24; a population-weighted global rate requires separate weights or an official aggregate.
- The indicator records participation, not programme quality, learning intensity, affordability, completion, or skills gained.
These cautions turn the measure from a simple ranking into a more useful diagnostic. A difference between two countries can prompt questions about school-to-work transitions, vocational systems, training access, or the structure of tertiary education. The rate is most informative when it helps identify where to look next rather than when it is used as a stand-alone score of national educational performance.
Why ages 15–24 deserve a separate view
Ages 15–24 sit at the boundary between compulsory schooling and adult economic life in many countries. Some people are still completing secondary education, others are in university or technical programmes, and others have entered employment or are looking for work. Measuring participation for this group therefore helps show whether learning continues through that transition instead of stopping when regular school attendance declines.
Cross-country interpretation still requires institutional context. Compulsory-school ages differ, tertiary systems start at different points, and vocational education can be school-based, workplace-based, or split between the two. Labour-market entry also varies by country. Identical participation rates can therefore emerge from quite different combinations of school enrolment, tertiary study, apprenticeships, and adult-oriented training.
What becomes clearer when this indicator is paired with other data
Combining this measure with secondary completion or tertiary enrolment can help separate formal education pathways from the broader set of organized learning opportunities. Comparing it with youth unemployment or NEET rates can show where labour-market transition and learning participation appear to disconnect. A vocational-programme participation measure can add detail on how much of the broader education-and-training activity is specifically technical or occupational.
Reference periods and age ranges must match before drawing quantitative conclusions. A measure based on participation in the previous four weeks is not directly comparable with a 12-month participation window. A 25–64 adult-learning rate describes a different stage of life from the 15–24 measure. Longer reference windows naturally have more opportunity to capture at least one episode of participation, so definitions should be aligned before differences are treated as behavioural or policy effects.
Questions the 2023 series is suited to answer
With the underlying country values, the 2023 series can support questions such as: Which reporting countries have relatively broad participation in organized education and training among 15–24-year-olds? Where does participation appear low enough to merit closer investigation? Do countries with low NEET rates also show broad education-and-training participation? Are there regional clusters that point to different school-to-work transition models?
The series cannot by itself answer which country has the “best” education system, how much participants learned, whether programmes improved employment outcomes, or why a particular country has a high or low rate. Those claims need evidence on learning outcomes, completion, programme quality, costs, labour-market results, and national institutions. Keeping the measure within its statistical scope makes the comparison more reliable.
Data source and measurement basis
The indicator is UNESCO Institute for Statistics PRYA.12MO.AG15T24. It covers ages 15–24, both sexes combined, and reports the percentage participating in formal or non-formal education or training during the previous 12 months. The source package identifies 2023 as the reference year and 94 national observations. No country rankings, averages, or map values have been invented where the country-level value table is not present, and missing observations are not treated as zeros.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is this the same as a school enrolment rate?
No. It includes participation in formal education and qualifying non-formal education or training, so it is broader than conventional school enrolment.
Does a high participation rate prove that education quality is high?
No. The indicator records whether people participated. It does not directly measure programme quality, learning outcomes, completion, duration, or intensity.
Can countries with missing data be treated as 0%?
No. Missing observations are not zeros. Replacing missing values with zero would distort rankings, averages, and any geographic interpretation.
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