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Data for 2020

Mean Years of Schooling, 2020

2020, as UNDP Human Development Report Office’s 2025 release gives it · stored as published, never rewritten

Mean Years of Schooling, 2020 covers 192 countries. Germany is highest, at 14.260; Niger is lowest, at 1.341. The middle country reads 9.681. Against 2019, 185 values changed (161 up, 24 down), the same countries are covered.

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Mean Years of Schooling · Data for 2020

HighestGermany

14.260

LowestNiger

1.341

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the better end. A higher value is the better result.

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Mean Years of Schooling, 2020, as published. UNDP Human Development Report Office ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 192 countries · select a heading to sort

Mean Years of Schooling, 2020: every country, as published by UNDP Human Development Report Office.
derived
1GermanyDEUWestern Europe14.260
2SwitzerlandCHEWestern Europe13.904
3CanadaCANNorthern America13.842
4IcelandISLNorthern Europe13.770
5United StatesUSANorthern America13.680
6EstoniaESTNorthern Europe13.550
7LithuaniaLTUNorthern Europe13.500
8IsraelISRWestern Asia13.437
9United KingdomGBRNorthern Europe13.410
10LatviaLVANorthern Europe13.329
11PalauPLWMicronesia13.238
12PolandPOLEastern Europe13.160
13NorwayNORNorthern Europe13.059
14SlovakiaSVKEastern Europe13.006
15DenmarkDNKNorthern Europe12.960
16New ZealandNZLAustralia and New Zealand12.940
17FinlandFINNorthern Europe12.925
18CzechiaCZEEastern Europe12.917
19SloveniaSVNSouthern Europe12.875
20GeorgiaGEOWestern Asia12.780
21United Arab EmiratesAREWestern Asia12.730
22BahamasBHSCaribbean12.725
23SwedenSWENorthern Europe12.675
24JapanJPNEastern Asia12.670
25AustraliaAUSAustralia and New Zealand12.640

02In 2020

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline.

Highest

  1. 1Germany14.260
  2. 2Switzerland13.904
  3. 3Canada13.842
  4. 4Iceland13.770
  5. 5United States13.680

Lowest

  1. 192Niger1.341
  2. 191Mali1.630
  3. 190Burkina Faso2.183
  4. 189Chad2.283
  5. 188Guinea2.361

A higher value is the better result. The middle country reads 9.681. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

032019 → 2020

Since 2019

What changed between 2019 and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +0 / −0countries joined / left
  • 185values changed, of 192 in both
  • 161 · 24rose · fell
  • 7unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

Both years come from the same release, so a difference here is a change in the data, not a revision of it. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

The site’s method

  • One year of the 2025 release

    Every year in this series comes from UNDP Human Development Report Office’s 2025 release, recalculated on one method. It can differ from what was first published for 2020.

  • 190 distinct values among 192

    Values are stored exactly as published, to 9 decimals. 2 countries share 11.410. Countries sharing a value share a position too.

  • The position is ours

    UNDP Human Development Report Office publishes values only. The order here sorts the published values, and the page says so wherever it prints one.

  • Which end is better

    A higher value is the better result.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 192 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 3.0 IGO. The version of CC BY written for intergovernmental organisations. Credit the publisher and say what you changed.

Cite this edition

UNDP Human Development Report Office (2020). Mean Years of Schooling, 2020 [data set], describing 2020. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/mean-years-schooling/2020

0634 held

Other years

07Questions

Mean Years of Schooling, 2020: questions and answers

Which country has the highest mean years of schooling in Mean Years of Schooling, 2020?

Germany, at 14.260, of the 192 countries in the file.

What year does Mean Years of Schooling, 2020 describe?

2020.

How many countries does Mean Years of Schooling, 2020 cover?

192.

Where can I download Mean Years of Schooling, 2020?

On this page, as a CSV file holding every value exactly as published, or from the publisher’s own site, linked below.

Is Mean Years of Schooling, 2020 the newest?

No. The newest held here is Mean Years of Schooling, 2023.

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