Population by educational attainment level

In the Flemish Region, 14.6% of the inhabitants aged 25 to 64 had a low level of educational attainment, 38.7% a medium level and 46.7% a high level of education in 2022. Low-educated persons are those without a final secondary school diploma. Persons with a medium level of education have successfully completed upper secondary or post-secondary non-tertiary education. Persons with a high level of education are persons with a tertiary education qualification.

The share of persons with a low level of education decreased between 1999 and 2022 from 42.3% to 14.6%. A reverse trend is seen for persons with a medium and high level of education: compared to 1999, the proportions of people with a medium and high level of education increased markedly, from 32.5% to 38.7% and from 25.2% to 46.7% respectively.

Women are on average more educated than men. In 2022, 51.3% of women had a high level of educational attainment compared to 42.2% of men. In contrast, 15.1% of men had a low level of educational attainment compared to 14.1% of women.

In 2022, nearly half of the inhabitants aged 25 to 34 (54.3%) and aged 35 to 44 (50.4%) had a high level of educational attainment in the Flemish Region. In the age group of 45 to 54 this was 46.2% and in the group aged 55 to 64, 37.1% were highly educated. In this latter age group, 23% had a low level of educational attainment. This share is markedly lower among younger age groups (around 10%).

In 2022, 52.6% of the employed aged 25 to 64 had a high level of educational attainment. Among the unemployed, 35% were highly educated. Among the non-actives (people who are not in work and are not looking for a job), this was 22.8%.

Conversely, 9.4% of the employed had a low level of education. That proportion was 23.6% among the unemployed and 36.3% among the non-actives.

In 2022, 48.6% of the persons born in Belgium were highly educated. For persons born in another country of the European Union (EU27), this share was lower (44.2%). For persons born outside the EU, the figure stood at 33.3%.

Conversely, the proportion of low educated persons born outside the EU (37.1%) was clearly higher than among persons born in Belgium (11.6%) or in another EU27 country (18.5%).

In 2022, the share of highly educated persons in the Flemish Region (46.7%) was between that of the Brussels-Capital Region (53.5%) and the Walloon Region (41.2%).

In the countries of the European Union (EU27), on average 1 out of 3 inhabitants was highly educated (34.3%) in 2022. In the Flemish Region, this share was higher. There are considerable differences in this respect among the EU countries. In Ireland, around half of the population (53.5%) is highly educated. In Italy and Romania this share was 20.3 and 19.7% respectively.