EDU 229 International Education

Education at a Glance 2023

OECD Indicators

Education at a Glance is the authoritative source for information on the state of education around the world. It provides data on the structure, finances and performance of education systems across OECD countries and a number of accession and partner countries. More than 100 charts and tables in this publication – as well as links to much more available on the educational database – provide key information on the output of educational institutions; the impact of learning across countries; access, participation and progression in education; the financial resources invested in education; and teachers, the learning environment and the organisation of schools.

The World Bank Group is the largest financier of education in the developing world, working in 90 countries and committed to helping them reach SDG4: access to inclusive and equitable quality education and lifelong learning opportunities for all by 2030.

The World Bank Group Education landing page has featured reports, an education-at-a-glance overview, ability to access information by focus areas such as girls' education, teachers, and digital technologies, and a link to view all research in education.

Education Statistics (EdStats) is a platform to allow for easy access to data for key indicators in education covering topics such as access, completion, learning outcomes, expenditures, policy, and equity.

There are also three datasets that can be downloaded:

• Learning Poverty Database
  • Comprehensive measures of the ability to read with comprehension, which is a foundational skill that every education system around the world strives to impart by late in primary school—generally by age 10.
• Harmonized Learning Outcomes Database 
  • Learning metrics that are comparable for countries globally are necessary to understand and track the formation of human capital. The Harmonized Learning Outcomes (HLO) database constructs a globally comparable database of 164 countries from 2000 to 2017. The data represent 98% of the global population and developing economies comprise two-thirds of the included countries.
• Country Learning Outcomes (CLO) of Harmonized Learning Assessments 
  • This dataset contains the Country Learning Outcomes (CLO) of harmonized learning assessments, which includes PISA, TIMSS, PIRLS, LLECE, PASEC, SEA-PLM, AMPL-b, and SACMEQ.

The Global Education Monitoring Report

The Global Education Monitoring Report (GEM Report) analyzes evidence to support policy-making, facilitate the sharing of good practice, and hold those responsible to account for fulfilling their commitments to help countries achieve the fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG 4) on education.

The report is a series of publications as well as data.

Scroll down to Explore Content By Theme to see data on various areas in educational systems.

International Data Explorer

The International Data Explorer (IDE) is an interactive online tool with data from international assessments and surveys, such as PISA and TIMSS. Use the IDE to explore student and adult performance on assessments and survey results for thousands of variables for the U.S. and other countries.

The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) has reports and data about education across the globe.

Education Resources has reports, case studies, briefs, technical notes and more for researchers and practitioners.

Education Data includes out-of-school rates, adjusted net attendance rates, completion rates, foundational learning skills, information communication technology skills, youth and adult literacy rates, and school-age digital connectivity.

Eurydice is a network from the European Union, whose task is to explain how education systems are organized in Europe and how they work.

The Eurydice Network national units are the 27 Member States of the EU, plus Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of North Macedonia, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Montenegro, Norway, Serbia, Switzerland and Türkiye. 

You can find comparative reports, data and visuals and comprehensive overviews of the national educational systems of the countries listed above.

Since 1988, the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) has been researching the world’s best-performing education systems (as defined by NCEE) to give states and districts the tools they need to become world class.

The NCEE Resource Hub has books, reports, white papers, briefs, and country profiles. Countries covered include Australia, Canada, China, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Hong Kong, Japan, Korea, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Singapore, Switzerland, Taiwan, the United Kingdom, and the United States.