Expected years of schooling (UNDP)

undp_hdr.eys · UNDP — Human Development Report · eys

Definition

Years of schooling a child of school-entry age can expect to complete if that year's age-specific enrollment rates hold throughout their school life. One of the two education components of the HDI. It measures the access and retention the system offers, not what students learn. The whole series is recomputed with each report edition.

Formula: Sum of age-specific enrollment rates, from school-entry age up to the maximum age considered.
Unit: years
License: CC-BY-3.0-IGO

This visualization is descriptive and does not show that a government caused the change. See the methodology.

Expected years of schooling (UNDP)

Brazil
Argentina
Chile
Colombia
Mexico

years. Background bands: Brazil's presidents, not those of the chart's other geographies. Years with data: all series: 1990–2023.

Expected years of schooling (UNDP): Source: UNDP — Human Development Report · Source version: HDR 2025 · Collected on: 2026-10-26 · License: CC-BY-3.0-IGO
Download data (CSV) · View the code: collection code · chart.ts

View the data as a table

Year	Brazil	Argentina	Chile	Colombia	Mexico
1990	14.1	13.4	12.7	9.2	11.2
1991	14.1	13.4	12.7	9.7	11.0
1992	14.2	13.3	12.7	10.3	11.0
1993	14.2	13.3	11.7	10.4	11.0
1994	14.3	13.2	11.9	10.5	11.1
1995	14.3	13.5	12.1	10.6	11.2
1996	14.4	13.7	12.3	11.1	11.4
1997	14.4	13.9	12.4	11.4	11.5
1998	14.5	14.1	12.6	11.8	11.7
1999	14.5	15.2	13.1	11.7	11.8
2000	14.6	15.7	13.1	12.2	12.0
2001	14.6	16.3	13.3	12.2	12.0
2002	14.7	16.4	13.5	12.2	12.3
2003	14.7	16.3	13.7	12.4	12.6
2004	14.8	16.3	14.1	12.7	12.7
2005	14.8	16.0	14.4	13.2	12.7
2006	14.9	16.2	14.3	13.5	12.8
2007	15.0	16.2	14.7	13.8	13.0
2008	15.0	16.4	14.9	14.0	13.2
2009	15.1	16.7	14.9	14.4	13.3
2010	15.1	17.0	15.1	14.4	13.4
2011	15.2	17.3	15.3	14.5	13.5
2012	15.2	17.2	15.4	14.2	13.7
2013	15.2	17.2	16.1	14.7	13.9
2014	15.4	17.4	16.3	14.6	14.1
2015	15.2	17.6	16.4	14.6	14.2
2016	15.3	17.9	16.5	14.8	14.7
2017	15.4	17.8	16.5	14.7	14.9
2018	15.5	17.9	16.6	14.6	14.9
2019	15.4	18.1	16.6	14.5	14.9
2020	15.4	18.4	16.3	14.3	14.8
2021	15.6	19.0	16.8	14.4	14.5
2022	15.8	18.8	16.9	14.3	14.5
2023	15.8	18.8	16.9	14.3	14.5

† series break

Criticisms of the metric

It counts years enrolled, not learning: a system with high repetition or low quality can show high expected years and low learning outcomes.
It depends on enrollment rates and population-by-age estimates, and recent enrollment data are often revised.
The value combines all education levels; it does not separate basic, technical and higher education.

References

UNDP. Human Development Report 2025 — Technical notes. https://hdr.undp.org/data-center/documentation-and-downloads

Download data (CSV)