Our World
in Data
Oxford Martin School logoUniversity of Oxford logoGlobal Change Data Lab logo
Data

Net enrolment rate in primary education

See all data and research on:
Global Education

What you should know about this indicator

  • The net enrolment rate shows what percentage of children are enrolled at the education level intended for their age. Unlike gross enrolment, it only counts students who are within the official age range for that level.
  • It compares children enrolled at the correct level for their age to the total population in that same age group. For example, if primary education is for ages 6 to 11, it measures how many 6- to 11-year-olds are actually enrolled in primary school.
  • The highest possible value is 100%, which would mean all children of the right age are enrolled where they should be. High rates indicate that most children are progressing through school at the expected pace.
  • Values cannot exceed 100% because it excludes over-age and under-age students. However, small discrepancies between enrolment records and population data can occasionally push rates slightly above 100%.
  • A rate of 90% doesn't necessarily mean 10% of children are out of school entirely - some may be enrolled at different levels (either higher or lower) than expected for their age, but these students aren't counted in the net rate.
  • The data comes from school administrative records that track enrolment by individual age, combined with population estimates from national statistics offices or UN sources.

Total number of students of the official age group for primary education who are enrolled in any level of education, expressed as a percentage of the corresponding population. Divide the total number of students in the official school age range for primary education who are enrolled in any level of education by the population of the same age group and multiply the result by 100. The difference between the total NER and the adjusted NER provides a measure of the proportion of children in the official relevant school age group who are enrolled in levels of education below the one intended for their age. The difference between the total NER and the adjusted NER for primary education is due to enrolment in pre-primary education. The total NER should be based on total enrolment of the official relevant school age group in any level of education for all types of schools and education institutions, including public, private and all other institutions that provide organized educational programmes.

Net enrolment rate in primary education
Percentage of children of official primary school age who are enrolled in .
Source
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data
Last updated
May 1, 2025
Next expected update
May 2026
Date range
1970–2024
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) is the official and trusted source of internationally-comparable data on education, science, culture and communication. As the official statistical agency of UNESCO, the UIS produces a wide range of state-of-the-art databases to fuel the policies and investments needed to transform lives and propel the world towards its development goals. The UIS provides free access to data for all UNESCO countries and regional groupings from 1970 to the most recent year available.

Retrieved on
May 1, 2025
Retrieved from
https://databrowser.uis.unesco.org/resources/bulk
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Education, https://uis.unesco.org/bdds, 2025

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Net enrolment rate in primary education”, part of the following publication: Hannah Ritchie, Veronika Samborska, Natasha Ahuja, Esteban Ortiz-Ospina, and Max Roser (2023) - “Global Education”. Data adapted from UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Retrieved from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-net-enrollment-rate-in-primary-education [online resource]
How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data

Full citation

UNESCO Institute for Statistics (2025) – processed by Our World in Data. “Net enrolment rate in primary education” [dataset]. UNESCO Institute for Statistics, “UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) - Education” [original data]. Retrieved June 14, 2025 from https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/total-net-enrollment-rate-in-primary-education