TOP 10 Countries by Tertiary Attainment (Age 25–34, 2025)
Countries with the Highest Tertiary Attainment Among Young Adults
This ranking measures how many people aged 25–34 have already completed tertiary education: short-cycle tertiary programmes, bachelor’s degrees, master’s degrees or doctorates. It is a useful young-adult benchmark because this group is old enough to have finished most initial education, but young enough to show the current shape of each country’s education system.
The page uses OECD Education at a Glance 2025 country-profile data. The underlying country values are for 2024 and are used here as the practical 2025 snapshot, because they are the latest comparable OECD-published figures available for this age group. A value of 70.6% means that roughly seven in ten residents aged 25–34 have completed a tertiary qualification.
Korea leads because tertiary education is the standard route for a very large share of young adults, not a narrow elite pathway.
The OECD average is about 48%, which makes the gap between the leader and a typical OECD country more than 20 percentage points.
The Top 10 is tightly grouped after the first four countries, but the floor is still high: the Netherlands enters tenth place at 55.6%.
This is a completion measure. It does not tell whether graduates have strong literacy, numeracy, job-specific skills, good earnings or jobs that actually require tertiary education.
What the top of the ranking shows
The Top 10 does not follow GDP per capita or university prestige in a straight line. It is shaped by the way each country defines and scales tertiary routes after upper secondary school. Korea rises through mass progression to higher education. Canada ranks high partly because colleges and short-cycle tertiary programmes count alongside universities. Several European countries reach the Top 10 through broad public access, high female attainment and strong completion among younger cohorts.
The first three countries are close in rank but not in structure. Korea’s figure reflects a society where tertiary completion is expected for many white-collar paths. Canada’s result is broader and more mixed, with colleges playing a major role. Ireland’s position reflects the rapid expansion of higher education among younger adults compared with older cohorts. Lower in the Top 10, the Netherlands and Sweden are not weak performers; they sit lower because the leaders are unusually high, not because majority tertiary attainment is rare there.
Top 10 Countries by Tertiary Attainment, Age 25–34
Korea combines intense progression into tertiary education with a social norm of completing advanced qualifications before full labour-market entry.
Canada’s figure is lifted by a large college sector as well as universities, so ISCED 5 short-cycle programmes matter more than in many European systems.
Ireland’s young-adult cohort shows high bachelor-level completion and a clear break from older educational profiles, reflecting rapid educational expansion.
Luxembourg stands out for a very high master’s-level share among young adults and a large intergenerational gap.
The UK is one of the clearest examples of university expansion becoming visible in the 25–34 cohort.
Norway pairs high attainment with exceptionally strong employment outcomes for tertiary-educated young adults.
Lithuania’s high ranking reflects a strong bachelor-level base and a large female attainment advantage.
Australia’s result reflects a large university sector, applied tertiary options and a labour market that absorbs many young graduates.
Sweden’s place reflects broad access rather than a single elite university track, with tertiary routes spread across different programme types.
The Netherlands closes the Top 10 despite a strong vocational tradition, showing that tertiary expansion can coexist with non-university pathways.
Ranking Table
| Rank | Country | Tertiary attainment | Region |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Korea | 70.6% | Asia |
| 2 | Canada | 68.9% | North America |
| 3 | Ireland | 66.2% | Europe |
| 4 | Luxembourg | 64.8% | Europe |
| 5 | United Kingdom | 60.3% | Europe |
| 6 | Norway | 59.0% | Europe |
| 7 | Lithuania | 58.3% | Europe |
| 8 | Australia | 57.2% | Oceania |
| 9 | Sweden | 56.0% | Europe |
| 10 | Netherlands | 55.6% | Europe |
Source: OECD Education GPS / Education at a Glance 2025 country profiles. Values are 2024 country data released in the 2025 OECD edition and rounded to one decimal place. The table ranks countries with available comparable OECD and partner-country data.
Chart: Top 10 by Young-Adult Tertiary Attainment
The chart shows where the ranking really separates: Korea and Canada sit near 70%, Ireland and Luxembourg form a second step, and the remaining six countries cluster within less than five percentage points of each other.
- Korea — 70.6%
- Canada — 68.9%
- Ireland — 66.2%
- Luxembourg — 64.8%
- United Kingdom — 60.3%
- Norway — 59.0%
- Lithuania — 58.3%
- Australia — 57.2%
- Sweden — 56.0%
- Netherlands — 55.6%
Methodology
Tertiary attainment is calculated as the percentage of a defined age group whose highest completed education is classified at ISCED 2011 levels 5–8. For this ranking, the age group is 25–34. The numerator is the number of people in that age group whose highest completed qualification is short-cycle tertiary, bachelor’s, master’s, doctoral or equivalent education. The denominator is the total population aged 25–34 with known educational attainment status. This means the indicator counts completed credentials, not current enrolment.
The ranking uses the latest values shown in OECD Education GPS country profiles connected to Education at a Glance 2025. Although the page uses a 2025 snapshot, the country figures themselves refer to 2024. That distinction is important: 2025 is the OECD release cycle, while 2024 is the latest complete comparable data year visible in the country profiles for this indicator.
Values are sorted from highest to lowest and rounded to one decimal place. Where countries use survey-based educational-attainment estimates, the published OECD value is used without reweighting. Countries without a comparable 25–34 tertiary-attainment value in the same OECD release context are not inserted into the ranking. Regional labels are navigation fields only; they do not affect rank order.
The main limitation is that tertiary attainment measures formal completion, not skill quality. It does not show whether graduates are working in graduate-level jobs, whether degrees are concentrated in high-demand fields, how much students paid, or whether adults without degrees have strong vocational or professional skills. ISCED 5 short-cycle qualifications and ISCED 6 bachelor’s degrees are both counted as tertiary, so countries with large applied college systems can rank high even if their degree mix differs from university-centred systems. Small year-to-year changes should also be interpreted cautiously because survey updates, administrative revisions and classification differences can affect international comparisons.
Insights
Korea, Canada and Ireland sit above 66%, showing that tertiary completion has moved from an elite pathway to a majority norm for young adults.
Luxembourg, the United Kingdom, Norway, Lithuania, Sweden and the Netherlands show different routes to high attainment: university expansion, master’s-heavy systems, broad public access and strong female participation.
Canada, Korea, Norway and Sweden show that tertiary attainment is not only about traditional bachelor’s degrees. Applied and shorter tertiary programmes can lift completion while serving labour-market needs.
A country can have high formal attainment while still facing skills mismatch, overqualification, uneven graduate earnings, or shortages in fields such as engineering, teaching, health and ICT.
What This Means for Readers
For readers comparing education systems, the ranking helps separate two questions that are often mixed together: how many young adults complete tertiary credentials, and whether the labour market truly needs that many graduates. A high value can show broad opportunity, but it can also show credential pressure if jobs increasingly require degrees for work that did not previously need them.
For students and families, the useful lesson is not “choose the country with the highest percentage.” The better question is whether the local system offers credible routes into skilled work: university degrees, applied college programmes, apprenticeships, or a mix of them. For employers and policymakers, the table points to practical pressure points: graduate oversupply in some fields, shortages in health and technical professions, and the need to treat shorter tertiary programmes as serious workforce routes rather than second-best options.
FAQ
What does tertiary attainment mean?
It is the share of people whose highest completed qualification is tertiary level. In OECD statistics that includes ISCED 5 short-cycle tertiary, ISCED 6 bachelor’s, ISCED 7 master’s and ISCED 8 doctoral qualifications.
Why use the 25–34 age group?
Because it shows the newest adult cohort more clearly than all adults aged 25–64. Older groups reflect education systems from decades ago, while 25–34-year-olds show what recent school-to-tertiary pathways are producing.
Why is the page called 2025 if the values are 2024?
The figures come from the OECD Education at a Glance 2025 release, but the latest comparable country data shown in the profiles refer to 2024. The page therefore treats 2024 as the data year and 2025 as the release snapshot.
Does a higher attainment rate mean a better education system?
No. A high completion rate can be a strength, but it does not prove that teaching quality is high, that graduates earn more, or that employers use graduate skills well. Those questions need employment, earnings, skills and field-of-study data.
Why are short-cycle tertiary programmes included?
OECD tertiary attainment follows ISCED 5–8. ISCED 5 includes short-cycle tertiary programmes, which are common in some countries and often provide applied or technical routes into skilled work.
Why do some large countries not appear in the Top 10?
Large countries usually contain bigger regional and social gaps, so national averages are harder to push above 60%. Some also rely more on apprenticeships, vocational upper-secondary routes or non-degree training. Those routes can be valuable, but they are not counted as tertiary attainment.
Sources
Main release context for the 2025 OECD education indicators, including tertiary attainment, education levels, labour-market outcomes and country comparisons.
https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/education-at-a-glance-2025_1c0d9c79-en.htmlCountry-profile source used to verify the 25–34 tertiary-attainment percentages and the 2024 data year behind the 2025 snapshot.
https://gpseducation.oecd.org/Downloadable OECD education database used for cross-checking attainment definitions, age groups and related labour-market education indicators.
https://data-explorer.oecd.org/Reference framework for interpreting tertiary education levels under ISCED 2011.
https://uis.unesco.org/en/topic/international-standard-classification-education-isced
