Adolescent girls out of school — lower secondary education (% of girls of lower secondary school age)
Share of adolescent girls of lower-secondary age who are not enrolled in lower-secondary school, based on UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) data.
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Key Insights
- •Out-of-school rates for lower-secondary-age girls range from near-universal enrollment (≈1% or less) in many high-income countries to above 50% in several low-income and conflict-affected contexts.
- •The transition into lower secondary is a critical dropout point; the same country can have much lower out-of-school rates at primary ages.
- •High out-of-school shares cluster where costs, distance/safety, early marriage, and household labor burdens are common.
- •Even single-digit percentages represent large numbers of girls in populous countries, making small percentage changes policy-relevant.
Country Rankings
Top 10 Countries
Bottom 10 Countries
Data Analysis
Value Distribution
How countries are distributed across the value range
Regional Comparison
Average values by world region (Global avg: 16.0%)
About This Statistic
This statistic measures the percentage of girls of official lower-secondary-school age who are not enrolled in lower-secondary education (or any level of education, depending on national system mapping used by UIS). It is a direct lens on education access at the pivotal transition from primary to secondary school—when dropout risk often rises due to costs, distance, child marriage, caregiving burdens, or conflict and displacement.
UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) compiles this indicator from administrative enrollment data and household surveys, standardized using each country’s official age ranges for lower secondary (ISCED 2). Comparisons across countries are informative, but should be interpreted with care because age-grade distortion, repetition, and differences in education structure can affect the measured “out-of-school” share.
Full Data
| Rank ↑ | Country ↕ | Value ↕ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | South Sudan | 74.0% |
| 2 | Somalia | 70.0% |
| 3 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 67.0% |
| 4 | Niger | 66.0% |
| 5 | Chad | 63.0% |
| 6 | Guinea | 62.0% |
| 7 | Burkina Faso | 62.0% |
| 8 | Eritrea | 58.0% |
| 9 | Senegal | 58.0% |
| 10 | Liberia | 57.0% |
| 11 | Burundi | 56.0% |
| 12 | Ethiopia | 55.0% |
| 13 | Mali | 54.0% |
| 14 | Sierra Leone | 52.0% |
| 15 | Yemen | 52.0% |
| 16 | Brunei Darussalam | 49.0% |
| 17 | Cote d'Ivoire | 48.0% |
| 18 | Republic of the Congo | 44.0% |
| 19 | Haiti | 44.0% |
| 20 | Mozambique | 44.0% |
| 21 | Sudan | 43.0% |
| 22 | Republic of The Gambia | 41.0% |
| 23 | Malawi | 41.0% |
| 24 | Mauritania | 41.0% |
| 25 | Togo | 40.0% |
| 26 | Uganda | 38.0% |
| 27 | Zambia | 36.0% |
| 28 | Nigeria | 35.0% |
| 29 | Bulgaria | 34.5% |
| 30 | Cameroon | 34.0% |
| 31 | Angola | 34.0% |
| 32 | Ghana | 33.0% |
| 33 | United Republic of Tanzania | 33.0% |
| 34 | Gabon | 32.0% |
| 35 | Papua New Guinea | 32.0% |
| 36 | Guinea-Bissau | 30.0% |
| 37 | Pakistan | 29.0% |
| 38 | Syrian Arab Republic | 27.0% |
| 39 | Madagascar | 24.0% |
| 40 | Timor-Leste | 22.0% |
| 41 | Rwanda | 22.0% |
| 42 | Albania | 21.0% |
| 43 | Iraq | 20.0% |
| 44 | Myanmar | 19.5% |
| 45 | Kenya | 18.0% |
| 46 | Lao People's Democratic Republic | 18.0% |
| 47 | Lesotho | 18.0% |
| 48 | Namibia | 18.0% |
| 49 | Zimbabwe | 18.0% |
| 50 | Cambodia | 16.0% |
| 51 | Cape Verde | 15.0% |
| 52 | India | 15.0% |
| 53 | Nicaragua | 15.0% |
| 54 | Egypt | 14.0% |
| 55 | Afghanistan | 12.5% |
| 56 | Guatemala | 12.0% |
| 57 | Libya | 10.0% |
| 58 | Nepal | 10.0% |
| 59 | El Salvador | 9.5% |
| 60 | Jamaica | 9.0% |
| 61 | Morocco | 9.0% |
| 62 | Honduras | 8.6% |
| 63 | Venezuela | 8.5% |
| 64 | Indonesia | 7.5% |
| 65 | Lebanon | 7.0% |
| 66 | Tunisia | 7.0% |
| 67 | Botswana | 6.8% |
| 68 | Dominican Republic | 6.5% |
| 69 | Sri Lanka | 6.0% |
| 70 | Jordan | 6.0% |
| 71 | Paraguay | 6.0% |
| 72 | Philippines | 6.0% |
| 73 | Vietnam | 6.0% |
| 74 | Trinidad and Tobago | 6.0% |
| 75 | Bangladesh | 6.0% |
| 76 | Islamic Republic of Iran | 5.2% |
| 77 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 4.6% |
| 78 | Panama | 4.5% |
| 79 | Mongolia | 4.2% |
| 80 | South Africa | 4.0% |
| 81 | Algeria | 4.0% |
| 82 | Tajikistan | 3.8% |
| 83 | Ecuador | 3.6% |
| 84 | Suriname | 3.5% |
| 85 | Türkiye | 3.4% |
| 86 | Bolivia | 3.4% |
| 87 | Colombia | 3.2% |
| 88 | Cuba | 3.1% |
| 89 | Malaysia | 3.0% |
| 90 | Mexico | 3.0% |
| 91 | Thailand | 3.0% |
| 92 | Costa Rica | 2.8% |
| 93 | Benin | 2.6% |
| 94 | Kyrgyzstan | 2.5% |
| 95 | Peru | 2.5% |
| 96 | Uzbekistan | 2.5% |
| 97 | Brazil | 2.5% |
| 98 | Australia | 2.2% |
| 99 | People's Republic of China | 2.0% |
| 100 | Moldova, Republic of | 2.0% |
| 101 | Uruguay | 2.0% |
| 102 | Kazakhstan | 1.9% |
| 103 | Georgia | 1.8% |
| 104 | Argentina | 1.8% |
| 105 | Chile | 1.6% |
| 106 | Ukraine | 1.6% |
| 107 | Romania | 1.5% |
| 108 | Czech Republic | 1.4% |
| 109 | Greece | 1.4% |
| 110 | Croatia | 1.3% |
| 111 | Hong Kong | 1.3% |
| 112 | Portugal | 1.3% |
| 113 | Saudi Arabia | 1.3% |
| 114 | France | 1.2% |
| 115 | Hungary | 1.2% |
| 116 | Italy | 1.2% |
| 117 | New Zealand | 1.2% |
| 118 | Russian Federation | 1.2% |
| 119 | Serbia | 1.2% |
| 120 | Slovakia | 1.2% |
| 121 | Spain | 1.2% |
| 122 | Austria | 1.2% |
| 123 | Finland | 1.1% |
| 124 | Ireland | 1.1% |
| 125 | Oman | 1.1% |
| 126 | Poland | 1.1% |
| 127 | United Kingdom | 1.1% |
| 128 | Belgium | 1.1% |
| 129 | Canada | 1.0% |
| 130 | Cyprus | 1.0% |
| 131 | Estonia | 1.0% |
| 132 | Germany | 1.0% |
| 133 | Israel | 1.0% |
| 134 | Japan | 1.0% |
| 135 | Kuwait | 1.0% |
| 136 | Lithuania | 1.0% |
| 137 | Qatar | 1.0% |
| 138 | United States of America | 1.0% |
| 139 | Denmark | 0.9% |
| 140 | Netherlands | 0.9% |
| 141 | Slovenia | 0.9% |
| 142 | North Korea | 0.8% |
| 143 | Luxembourg | 0.8% |
| 144 | Singapore | 0.8% |
| 145 | Sweden | 0.8% |
| 146 | South Korea | 0.7% |
| 147 | Switzerland | 0.7% |
| 148 | Iceland | 0.6% |
Topics
Data Source
This data comes from UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) (2022).
View Original Source