Independent rankings built from public data — every figure traceable to the body that published it.
Dataset · UIS
52 years, 1971–2024 · 95 countries · 3 measures
The tertiary enrolment ratio counts everyone enrolled in universities and other tertiary education, at any age, against the population of the usual five-year university age band. It is UNESCO’s standard measure of access to higher education.
This site holds every year from 1971 to 2024, read from UIS’s own data and stored exactly as published.
Tertiary Enrolment Ratio · the file
0152 years
Newest first. Each opens the full table for that year, and each downloads as a CSV.
| Year | Countries | Change | Read | Download |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2024Newest | 95 | +11 −45 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2023 | 129 | +15 −12 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2022 | 126 | +7 −6 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2021 | 125 | +1 −9 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2020 | 133 | +9 −8 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2019 | 132 | +9 −11 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2018 | 134 | +8 −11 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2017 | 137 | +10 −9 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2016 | 136 | +5 −17 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2015 | 148 | +18 −8 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2014 | 138 | +18 −12 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
| Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 2013 | 132 | +11 −23 | September 10, 2026 | CSV |
Every year in one file, one row per country per year: tertiary-enrolment-all-editions-nations-inquiry.csv
025 columns
Every column, what it holds, how it is stored and what its values look like — what a reader needs before opening the file.
| Column | What it holds | Stored as | Range, 2024 | Distinct | Empty | Spread |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
CountrycountryName | The country’s name, as this file spells it. | Text | — | 95 | 0 | |
ISO Codecountry_codeIdentifier | The ISO 3166-1 alpha-3 code, added by this site. Every table here joins on it. | Text · 3 letters | — | 95 | 0 | |
Gross enrolment ratio, tertiary (%)tertiary_gerHeadline | The headline figure: Gross enrolment ratio, tertiary (%). | Number · up to 15 decimals | 2.57 | 95 | 0 | |
FemalefemaleWomen | The same measure, for women. | Number · up to 15 decimals | 2.97 | 95 | 0 | |
MalemaleMen | The same measure, for men. | Number · up to 15 decimals | 2.173 | 95 | 0 |
Profiled from the newest file. Range: the lowest and highest value, with the country holding it when only one does. Spread: countries in ten equal steps from lowest to highest. A higher value is the better result.
03206 countries across every year
How many countries each year holds, continent by continent, who joined and who left, and which places this site covers that the dataset never has.
| 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Africa | 33 | 32 | 34 | 28 | 28 | 24 | 22 | 23 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 17 |
| Americas | 23 | 25 | 29 | 24 | 23 | 22 | 22 | 20 | 18 | 21 | 22 | 14 |
| Asia | 37 | 40 | 40 | 39 | 41 | 42 | 42 | 43 | 43 | 41 | 39 | 30 |
| Europe | 37 | 38 | 40 | 41 | 41 | 42 | 41 | 42 | 42 | 39 | 40 | 26 |
| Oceania | 2 | 3 | 5 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 8 |
| All | 132 | 138 | 148 | 136 | 137 | 134 | 132 | 133 | 125 | 126 | 129 | 95 |
The newest 12 of 52 years.
UIS gives no figure for these in any year held here. It is the publisher’s choice of scope, and each place’s profile shows what is measured.
04Provenance
The path from the publisher to this page, and what was checked and changed on the way.
1 · Publisher
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
2 · Their file
Tertiary Enrolment Ratio 2024
3 · Read by this site
September 10, 2026
4 · Stored as
52 files, one per year
5 · Used on
Its statistic page, and every profile it measures
Precision
The headline is stored to 15 decimals, as published.
Rounded by this site
Never. Tables on screen may show fewer decimals; the files never do.
Changed by this site
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.
From the UNESCO Institute for Statistics data API. Years reporting fewer than 50 countries are left out. Female and male ratios are stored beside the headline.
05Reuse
What the publisher’s licence lets you do, what it asks of you, and a credit line and citation ready to copy.
Licence · checked September 5, 2026
Share, adapt and use commercially with credit — and anything you publish that adapts it must carry the same licence.
A credit line
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, via Nations Inquiry.
Cite this dataset
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). Tertiary Enrolment Ratio, 1971–2024 [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/tertiary-enrolment
The publisher’s own citation: UNESCO Institute for Statistics. UIS Data Browser. Montreal: UNESCO Institute for Statistics.
Plain-language summary, not legal advice. The licence text is what binds.
06Where it is used
Where these numbers appear on this site, and the datasets nearest to it.
Charted
Tertiary Enrolment Ratio by countryWho is highest, the map, the spread, who rose and fell, and the records.
Subjects
Near neighbours
07Questions
The tertiary enrolment ratio counts everyone enrolled in universities and other tertiary education, at any age, against the population of the usual five-year university age band. It is UNESCO’s standard measure of access to higher education.
All 52, from 1971 to 2024, each as a CSV file, or every year together in one CSV.
No. UIS publishes values only. The positions shown on this site are derived by ordering the published values, and are labelled as ours.
Yes, under CC BY-SA 4.0, with credit to UIS. The licence text is linked on this page.