More children and youth are completing school than a decade ago, but one in six is excluded from education. Between 2015 and 2024, completion rates rose across all levels of education: from 85 to 88 per cent for primary, 75 to 78 per cent for lower secondary and 53 to 61 per cent for upper secondary. Though this trend is encouraging on a global level, other signals point to large and persistent disparities. In sub-Saharan Africa, only 68 per cent of children complete primary education, 47 per cent complete lower secondary, and just 28 per cent complete upper secondary.

Beyond completion rates, the global out-of-school rate declined only marginally – from 17.4 per cent in 2015 to 16.8 per cent in 2024 – leaving 273 million children and young people without access to education. In low-income countries, the out-of-school population has grown by 29 per cent since 2015, with sub-Saharan Africa and Central and Southern Asia together accounting for three quarters of the global total. The growing out-of-school population in low- and lower-middle-income countries reflects rapid demographic growth compounded by persistent barriers linked to poverty, conflict and limited education infrastructure.

While more children and young people are completing school worldwide, progress has not been equal across genders, regions or economic standing – inequalities that can be hidden by global and regional averages.

Gender disparities remain widespread across education levels: nearly 4 in 10 countries still fall short of gender parity in primary completion rates, rising to almost 5 in 6 countries at the upper secondary level. Since 2015, girls’ completion rates have increasingly outpaced those of boys in many countries, while significant disadvantages for girls remain in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. Learning outcomes also vary by subject: girls tend to outperform boys in reading, whereas mathematics gaps often disadvantage girls, especially at the primary level.

Wealth and location gaps are an even stronger predictor of whether a child completes school. Globally, the parity ratio between the poorest and the richest 20 per cent stood at 0.91 in primary education, dropping to 0.68 in lower secondary and 0.34 in upper secondary – far below the parity range of 0.97–1.03 – demonstrating that poorer children are increasingly left behind as education levels rise. Rural-urban disparities are also stark, with children in rural settings completing upper secondary education at just 76 per cent the rate of their peers. Closing these gaps will require targeted policies that address economic barriers, geographic exclusion and gender-specific disadvantages in both access and learning outcomes.

School infrastructure improved significantly over the past decade, with access to electricity, computers and Internet connectivity rising by about 10 percentage points globally. The gains were sharpest in Central and Southern Asia, where primary schools saw electricity access climb by more than 30 percentage points. Internet connectivity also accelerated in several regions following COVID-19, reflecting growing recognition of the importance of digital learning.

Yet progress has not been consistent. Globally, more than one fifth of primary schools still lack access to electricity, safe drinking water or basic sanitation, while fewer than half have computers, Internet access or disability-adapted infrastructure. Conditions are far worse in LDCs, where between 40 and 50 per cent of primary schools lack basic sanitation services, more than half remain without electricity and around three quarters lack computers and Internet connectivity. Accessible infrastructure for students with disabilities is available in fewer than one in five primary schools.