Average effective distance to a tertiary education institution (percent of population within 60 minutes)
Share of each country’s population that can reach a tertiary education institution within 60 minutes of travel time (2020).
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Key Insights
- •Small, densely populated countries and high-income countries tend to have near-universal 60-minute access to tertiary institutions.
- •Large or sparsely populated countries can show high national averages while still having large remote regions with very low access.
- •Several low-income and conflict-affected countries have very low modeled access, reflecting limited institution networks and transport constraints.
- •This metric highlights spatial inequality in higher education access that is not visible in enrollment-rate indicators alone.
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: 68.0%)
About This Statistic
This statistic measures physical access to higher education by estimating what share of a country’s population can reach a tertiary (post‑secondary) education institution within 60 minutes of travel time, using modeled travel time across road networks and terrain combined with geolocated institution and population datasets.
It’s an intuitive way to compare “how close higher education is” across countries—capturing geographic barriers and settlement patterns. High values typically reflect dense networks of institutions and transport infrastructure, while lower values often occur where populations are dispersed, road networks are limited, or institutions are concentrated in a few cities.
Full Data
| Rank ↑ | Country ↕ | Value ↕ |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Singapore | 99.7% |
| 2 | Netherlands | 99.6% |
| 3 | Switzerland | 99.6% |
| 4 | Denmark | 99.5% |
| 5 | Luxembourg | 99.5% |
| 6 | Norway | 99.4% |
| 7 | Sweden | 99.4% |
| 8 | Belgium | 99.4% |
| 9 | France | 99.3% |
| 10 | United Arab Emirates | 99.3% |
| 11 | United Kingdom | 99.3% |
| 12 | Finland | 99.2% |
| 13 | Germany | 99.2% |
| 14 | South Korea | 99.2% |
| 15 | Italy | 99.1% |
| 16 | Kuwait | 99.1% |
| 17 | Spain | 99.1% |
| 18 | Australia | 99.1% |
| 19 | Ireland | 99.0% |
| 20 | Japan | 99.0% |
| 21 | Mauritius | 99.0% |
| 22 | Armenia | 99.0% |
| 23 | Faroe Islands | 98.9% |
| 24 | Portugal | 98.9% |
| 25 | Estonia | 98.8% |
| 26 | Israel | 98.8% |
| 27 | New Zealand | 98.8% |
| 28 | Trinidad and Tobago | 98.8% |
| 29 | United States of America | 98.8% |
| 30 | Fiji | 98.7% |
| 31 | Greece | 98.7% |
| 32 | Poland | 98.7% |
| 33 | Slovenia | 98.7% |
| 34 | Iceland | 98.6% |
| 35 | Slovakia | 98.6% |
| 36 | Hungary | 98.4% |
| 37 | Czech Republic | 98.3% |
| 38 | Saudi Arabia | 98.2% |
| 39 | Bahrain | 98.2% |
| 40 | Lithuania | 98.1% |
| 41 | Oman | 98.0% |
| 42 | Georgia | 97.9% |
| 43 | Latvia | 97.8% |
| 44 | Cyprus | 97.6% |
| 45 | Croatia | 97.5% |
| 46 | Afghanistan | 97.1% |
| 47 | Bosnia and Herzegovina | 96.9% |
| 48 | Barbados | 96.8% |
| 49 | People's Republic of China | 96.5% |
| 50 | Lebanon | 96.5% |
| 51 | Argentina | 96.4% |
| 52 | Jordan | 96.1% |
| 53 | Belarus | 95.9% |
| 54 | Serbia | 95.9% |
| 55 | Uruguay | 95.9% |
| 56 | Chile | 95.7% |
| 57 | Türkiye | 95.6% |
| 58 | Bulgaria | 95.2% |
| 59 | Romania | 94.8% |
| 60 | The Republic of North Macedonia | 94.6% |
| 61 | Andorra | 94.2% |
| 62 | Egypt | 94.1% |
| 63 | Cuba | 94.0% |
| 64 | Canada | 93.8% |
| 65 | Russian Federation | 93.6% |
| 66 | Algeria | 93.6% |
| 67 | Malaysia | 93.4% |
| 68 | Austria | 92.8% |
| 69 | Ukraine | 92.7% |
| 70 | Sri Lanka | 92.6% |
| 71 | Islamic Republic of Iran | 92.3% |
| 72 | Botswana | 92.1% |
| 73 | Venezuela | 90.1% |
| 74 | Costa Rica | 88.9% |
| 75 | Iraq | 88.7% |
| 76 | Tunisia | 88.6% |
| 77 | Uzbekistan | 87.3% |
| 78 | Brazil | 86.7% |
| 79 | Libya | 86.4% |
| 80 | Colombia | 86.2% |
| 81 | Kazakhstan | 86.0% |
| 82 | Dominican Republic | 85.6% |
| 83 | Morocco | 85.3% |
| 84 | Mexico | 84.7% |
| 85 | Moldova, Republic of | 84.1% |
| 86 | Thailand | 83.7% |
| 87 | India | 78.6% |
| 88 | Ecuador | 78.1% |
| 89 | Central African Republic | 77.4% |
| 90 | Nepal | 74.8% |
| 91 | Mongolia | 74.3% |
| 92 | Philippines | 74.2% |
| 93 | Panama | 74.0% |
| 94 | Peru | 72.9% |
| 95 | Bangladesh | 72.5% |
| 96 | Paraguay | 72.1% |
| 97 | Vietnam | 70.4% |
| 98 | South Africa | 68.8% |
| 99 | Syrian Arab Republic | 67.5% |
| 100 | Kyrgyzstan | 64.2% |
| 101 | Tajikistan | 63.8% |
| 102 | Indonesia | 63.1% |
| 103 | Belize | 58.4% |
| 104 | Pakistan | 56.6% |
| 105 | Guatemala | 55.9% |
| 106 | Bolivia | 55.1% |
| 107 | Nigeria | 53.8% |
| 108 | Honduras | 53.7% |
| 109 | Nicaragua | 53.2% |
| 110 | Gabon | 53.0% |
| 111 | Timor-Leste | 48.7% |
| 112 | El Salvador | 46.8% |
| 113 | Ghana | 44.9% |
| 114 | Cote d'Ivoire | 42.1% |
| 115 | Myanmar | 41.7% |
| 116 | Kenya | 40.8% |
| 117 | Namibia | 39.8% |
| 118 | Brunei Darussalam | 36.6% |
| 119 | Cambodia | 35.3% |
| 120 | Haiti | 35.0% |
| 121 | Suriname | 33.5% |
| 122 | Guinea-Bissau | 31.0% |
| 123 | Cameroon | 30.2% |
| 124 | Republic of The Gambia | 28.7% |
| 125 | Senegal | 27.2% |
| 126 | Zimbabwe | 26.9% |
| 127 | Republic of the Congo | 26.5% |
| 128 | Sudan | 26.0% |
| 129 | Guinea | 24.3% |
| 130 | Lesotho | 22.6% |
| 131 | Mali | 21.9% |
| 132 | Mauritania | 20.5% |
| 133 | Djibouti | 20.4% |
| 134 | Togo | 20.2% |
| 135 | Zambia | 20.1% |
| 136 | Lao People's Democratic Republic | 19.3% |
| 137 | Sierra Leone | 18.8% |
| 138 | United Republic of Tanzania | 18.7% |
| 139 | Ethiopia | 18.6% |
| 140 | Albania | 18.4% |
| 141 | Rwanda | 18.1% |
| 142 | Solomon Islands | 17.9% |
| 143 | Yemen | 17.5% |
| 144 | Burkina Faso | 17.2% |
| 145 | Eswatini | 16.3% |
| 146 | Uganda | 15.4% |
| 147 | New Caledonia | 14.8% |
| 148 | Democratic Republic of the Congo | 14.7% |
| 149 | Mozambique | 14.5% |
| 150 | Madagascar | 13.6% |
| 151 | Liberia | 12.7% |
| 152 | Malawi | 12.4% |
| 153 | Niger | 11.3% |
| 154 | Angola | 10.8% |
| 155 | Benin | 10.2% |
| 156 | Burundi | 9.4% |
| 157 | Papua New Guinea | 8.9% |
| 158 | Chad | 8.1% |
| 159 | Eritrea | 7.3% |
| 160 | South Sudan | 6.1% |
| 161 | Somalia | 3.2% |
Topics
Data Source
This data comes from World Bank (Global Education Policy Dashboard / Global Education Analytics – access to education services, modeled) (2020).
View Original Source