Higher education now reaches hundreds of millions of learners worldwide, but participation, affordability, and outcomes still vary sharply by country, age group, institution type, and student background. The statistics below bring together recent measures from UNESCO, Eurostat, the OECD, the National Center for Education Statistics (NCES), the College Board, and the National Center for Science and Engineering Statistics (NCSES).
Contents
- Global participation and access
- European attainment and regional differences
- Fields of study and education outcomes
- U.S. enrollment and credentials
- Financial aid, tuition, and public funding
- Research investment and historically Black colleges
Global participation and access
UNESCO reports that about 264 million students are enrolled in universities around the world. The same UNESCO higher education page gives a longer-term comparison: global university enrollment rose from 100 million in 2000 to 264 million. A separate UNESCO video summary describes the number of higher education students as more than doubling over the last 20 years, reaching 235 million. These figures use different summaries and reference points, so they should be read as distinct reported measures rather than combined into one series.
UNESCO’s Higher Education: What You Need to Know reports a global higher education enrollment ratio of 43%. It also reports that more than 9 million students study abroad. International mobility has grown substantially: UNESCO’s higher education page says the number of international students has more than tripled over the last two decades, reaching 6.9 million in the cited summary.
Access is considerably more limited for displaced young people. UNESCO’s Higher Education: What You Need to Know reports that 7% of eligible refugee youth are enrolled in higher education. UNESCO’s higher education page summary gives refugee youth access as 9%. Because the two figures come from separate UNESCO summaries, the measurement context is important and the values should not be treated as a single trend.
Higher education policy is tracked through a broad set of measures. UNESCO’s Higher Education Policy Observatory contains 45 indicators, covering participation and other dimensions of higher education systems. UNESCO also reports that four out of five countries devote less than 1% of gross domestic product to research and development.
European attainment and regional differences
Eurostat reports that 44.1% of people aged 25–34 in the European Union had attained tertiary education in 2024. The EU rate increased from 39.6% in 2019 to 44.1% in 2024. Another Eurostat summary reports that 44.2% of the same age group had tertiary education in 2024; the small difference reflects the separate published summaries and should be retained when citing the respective sources.
The national figures show a wide spread across the EU. In 2024, tertiary attainment among 25–34-year-olds was 65.2% in Ireland, 63.8% in Luxembourg, and 60.1% in Cyprus. At the lower end of the supplied national figures, the rate was 23.2% in Romania, 31.6% in Italy, and 32.3% in Hungary. These are national percentages for the 25–34 age group, not the share of the entire population with a tertiary qualification.
Eurostat’s regional analysis provides another view of the distribution. Of 242 NUTS 2 regions with data, 84 had already met or surpassed the EU tertiary-education target. Twenty-five EU regions had tertiary attainment of at least 57.5% among people aged 25–34. The 84 regions represent roughly 35% of the 242 regions, consistent with Eurostat’s summary that 35% of EU regions met the higher education target.
| EU measure | Reported value | Reference period or population |
|---|---|---|
| Tertiary attainment | 44.1% | Ages 25–34, 2024 |
| Regions meeting or exceeding target | 84 of 242 | NUTS 2 regions with data |
| Regions with attainment of at least 57.5% | 25 | Ages 25–34 |
| Tertiary graduates who were women | 54.8% | All EU tertiary graduates, 2024 |
Gender differences are also visible in the EU data. Eurostat reports that 49% of women aged 25–34 had tertiary education in 2024, compared with 38% of men. The same 49% versus 38% comparison is reported for 2023. Among all EU tertiary education graduates in 2024, women accounted for 54.8%.
The figures for young people who are citizens of countries outside the EU show a rising rate over time. In 2024, 36.7% of non-EU citizens aged 25–34 in the EU had attained tertiary education, up from 24.2% in 2014. Eurostat reports the increase as 12.5 percentage points. In 2024, the tertiary attainment rate for women from non-EU countries was 39.3%.
Fields of study and education outcomes
Eurostat recorded about 4.8 million tertiary education graduates in the EU in 2017. The largest supplied subject-area group was social sciences, journalism, information, business, administration, or law, accounting for 34% of graduates. Engineering, manufacturing, and construction accounted for 15%, while health and welfare accounted for 14%.
Arts and humanities represented 11% of EU tertiary graduates in 2017. Natural sciences, mathematics, statistics, and information and communication technologies also represented 11%. Education represented 9%. Together, these figures show how graduates were distributed across broad fields in the 2017 Eurostat classification; they are not a forecast of current subject demand.
The OECD connects education attainment with labor-market earnings, although its comparison concerns upper secondary education rather than tertiary education. Across OECD countries, full-time, full-year workers aged 25–64 without upper secondary education earn 18% less than peers who have completed upper secondary education. The gap exceeds 50% in Chile. It is 7% in both Australia and Lithuania, while in Finland the earnings of workers with and without upper secondary attainment are similar.
U.S. enrollment and credentials
NCES reports total fall enrollment of 19,862,000 students in U.S. degree-granting postsecondary institutions in 2023. Of these students, 12,045,000 were enrolled full time and 7,817,000 part time. Female students represented 57.1% of U.S. degree-granting postsecondary students. Public institutions enrolled 14,698,000 students, compared with 5,163,000 at private institutions.
The NCES undergraduate measure reports 20,186,000 undergraduate students in fall 2023. That total included 12,452,000 full-time students and 7,734,000 part-time students. The difference between the total degree-granting postsecondary measure and the undergraduate measure reflects the separate NCES tables and their reported populations.
U.S. postsecondary institutions conferred 5 million awards in 2023. The total included 904,000 certificates, 959,000 associate’s degrees, 1,965,000 bachelor’s degrees, 933,000 master’s degrees, and 205,000 doctor’s degrees. These categories describe awards conferred, not unique students, because one student may receive more than one award.
Financial aid, tuition, and public funding
NCES’s 2019–20 National Postsecondary Student Aid Study found that 72% of U.S. undergraduates received some type of financial aid. The average amount of aid received was $14,100. Federal student aid reached 55% of undergraduates, while 40% received Pell Grants and 34% took out Direct Loans. These figures describe the 2019–20 aid year and should not be read as 2023 or 2025–26 participation rates.
College Board data for 2025–26 show large differences in published tuition and fees by institution type. Average published tuition and fees were $11,950 at public four-year in-state institutions, $31,880 at public four-year out-of-state institutions, $4,150 at public two-year in-district institutions, and $45,000 at private nonprofit four-year institutions.
| U.S. institution type | Average published tuition and fees, 2025–26 |
|---|---|
| Public four-year, in state | $11,950 |
| Public four-year, out of state | $31,880 |
| Public two-year, in district | $4,150 |
| Private nonprofit four-year | $45,000 |
Average net tuition and fees were lower than published prices for first-time, full-time students. In 2025–26, the average net tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year institutions were $2,300 in 2025 dollars. The comparable average for first-time, full-time students at private nonprofit four-year institutions was $16,910 in 2025 dollars.
State variation is substantial. In 2025–26, public two-year tuition ranged from $1,440 in California to $8,900 in Vermont. Public four-year in-state tuition ranged from $6,360 in Florida to $18,090 in Vermont. In 2023–24, state and local funding per student for public higher education was $11,680. That funding ranged from $5,510 in New Hampshire to more than $20,000 in Connecticut, Hawaii, Illinois, and Alaska.
Enrollment also changed across institution types. From fall 2022 to fall 2023, total U.S. postsecondary enrollment increased by 455,000 students, or 2%. Public two-year enrollment declined by 587,000 students, or 8.6%, from fall 2019 to fall 2023. It fell by 845,000 between fall 2019 and fall 2022, then rebounded by 258,000 between fall 2022 and fall 2023.
Research investment and historically Black colleges
NCSES reported $117.7 billion in U.S. higher education research and development expenditures in fiscal year 2024. Spending increased by $8.9 billion from FY 2023 to FY 2024, and the NCSES university R&D brief reports year-over-year growth of 8.1% in FY 2024. Since FY 2014, higher education R&D has grown at an average annual rate of 5.7% in current dollars.
Federal sources accounted for $5.0 billion of the FY 2023–FY 2024 increase. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services accounted for 55% of federally funded university R&D in FY 2024, equal to $35.5 billion of $64.6 billion. The FY 2024 Higher Education Research and Development Survey population included 925 institutions.
NCES counted 99 historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) in the United States in 2022. They were located in 19 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Of the 99 institutions, 50 were public and 49 were private nonprofit.
HBCU enrollment rose from 223,000 in 1976 to 327,000 in 2010, then fell 11% to 289,000 by 2022. Those enrollment figures span different years and describe the historical pattern reported by NCES; they do not identify the causes of the change.