Top marks in higher education attainment

Cyprus has the third highest percentage in Europe of young people who have had a tertiary education, and it’s way above the EU average, according to Eurostat.

In 2022, 42% of the EU population aged 25-34 had a tertiary education, an increase of 1 percentage point (pp) compared with 2021 (41%).

However, this still fell short by 3 pp from the EU’s 2030 target, which aims for 45% of the EU population in the same age group to have a higher education.

The gender disparity in tertiary education is clear: among individuals aged 25-34, more women have tertiary education than men (48% of women and 37% of men, respectively).

Almost half of the EU countries have already met the 2030 EU-level target for this indicator: Ireland (62%), Luxembourg (61%), Cyprus (59%), Lithuania (58%), the Netherlands (56%), Sweden (52%), Spain and Belgium (both 51%), France (50%), Denmark (49%), Slovenia (47%), Latvia (46%) and Greece (45%).

In contrast, the lowest shares were recorded in Romania (25%), Italy (29%) and Hungary (32%).