Population by educational attainment level

In 2024, 15.1% of 25 to 64 year olds were low-skilled, 39.7% medium-skilled and 45.3% highly educated. Low-skilled people are people without a secondary education diploma. Medium-skilled people have successfully completed secondary education or post-secondary non-higher education. High-skilled people have a higher education diploma.

The share of low-skilled people fell from 42.3% to 15.1% between 1999 and 2024. The opposite trend was seen among medium-skilled and highly educated people: compared to 1999, the shares of medium-skilled and highly educated people have clearly increased (from 32.5% to 39.7% and from 25.2% to 45.3% respectively). The share of highly educated people has increased the most.

Women are more often highly educated than men. In 2024, 49.7% of women were highly educated compared to 40.9% of men. In contrast, 16.2% of men and 13.9% of women were low-educated.

In 2024, approximately half of both 25- to 34-year-olds (52.4%) and 35- to 54-year-olds (46.8%) were highly educated. In 55- to 64-year-olds, 36.0% were highly educated. In the latter age group, 22.6% were low-educated. The share of low-educated people is significantly lower among 25- to 34-year-olds (10.4%) and 35- to 54-year-olds (13.2%).

51.0% of workers aged between 25 and 64 were highly educated in 2024. Among unemployed people, 33.1% were highly educated. Among non-working people (people who do not work and who are not actively looking for a job), 21.1% were highly educated. Conversely, 10.1% of workers were low-skilled. Among unemployed people, this was 19.9% ​​and among non-working people 36.7%.

People who do not experience any hindrance during their daily activities due to a disability or long-term health problem are more often higher educated than people with hindrance. In 2024, 46.4% of people without hindrance were highly educated compared to 25.3% of people with hindrance. Among people without hindrance, 13.8% were low-skilled compared to 31.1% of people with hindrance.

Finally, in 2024, 47.4% of people born in Belgium were highly educated. For persons born in another country of the European Union (EU27), that share was lower (38.4%). For persons born outside the EU, that was 34.7%. Conversely, the share of low-skilled persons for persons born outside the EU (34.8%) was clearly higher than for persons born in Belgium (11.7%) or in another EU country (22.0%).

The share of highly educated people in the Flemish Region (45.3%) in 2024 was between the share of the Brussels-Capital Region (53.7%) and the Walloon Region (41.4%). In Belgium as a whole, it was 45.0%.

In the European Union (EU27), on average just over 1 in 3 inhabitants was highly educated in 2024 (36.1%). In the Flemish Region, that share was higher. There are major differences between the EU countries in this respect. In Ireland, more than half of the population (56.6%) is highly educated. In Romania, that share is 19.2%.