EU sees record number of aged 30 to 34 with tertiary education

Eurostat, the statistical office of the European Union, said on Wednesday that the proportion of the population aged from 30 to 34 in the EU who have received tertiary education hit a record high of 39.1 percent in 2016.

According to latest data, this figure has steadily increased from 23.6 percent of 2002 when such records began.

Early leavers from education and training aged from 18 to 24 accounted for 10.7 percent in the EU in 2016, representing a decrease from 17.0 percent in 2002.

The Europe 2020 strategy's targets are to have at least 40 percent of 30-to-34-year-old population in the bloc complete tertiary education and to reduce the rates of early school leaving to below 10 percent by 2020.

Notably, in 2016, 43.9 percent of women aged from 30 to 34 attained tertiary education, which means this has already exceeded the target.

According to the official data, in 2016, Lithuania witnessed the largest share, 58.7 percent, of the population aged from 30 to 34 who have achieved tertiary education. Luxembourg and Cyprus ranked the second and third with 54.6 percent and 53.4 percent respectively.

In contrast, the weakest data was recorded in Romania, where only 25.6 percent of the population aged from 30 to 34 achieved tertiary education. It was followed by Italy's 26.2 percent and Croatia's 29.5 percent.